Refugees of Iraq are Iraqi nationals who have fled Iraq due to war or persecution. Throughout the past 30 years, there have been a growing number of refugees fleeing Iraq and settling throughout the world, peaking recently with the latest Iraq War. Precipitated by a series of conflicts including the Kurdish rebellions during the Iran–Iraq War (1980 to 1988), Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait (1990) and the Gulf War (1991), the subsequent sanctions against Iraq, and culminating in the violence during and after the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, millions have been forced by insecurity to flee their homes in Iraq. Unlike most refugees, Iraqi refugees have established themselves in urban areas in other countries rather than in refugee camps.[1]

In April 2007, there was an estimate of over 4 million Iraqi refugees around the world, including 1.9 million in Iraq, 2 million in neighboring Middle East countries, and around 200,000 in countries outside the Middle East.[2][3][4][5][6] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has led the humanitarian efforts for Iraqi refugees.[5] The Iraqi displacement of several million is the largest in the Middle East, and is much larger than the number of Palestinians who were displaced in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel.[5][7]

On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.[8] The ensuing 1991 Gulf War produced nearly three million refugees, many of them from Iraq.[8] Almost all them left Iraq and Kuwait before the war started or after Desert Storm was over.[8] The largest groups were the Kurds and Shi'as fleeing Saddam Hussein after a failed uprising, as well as the Palestinians. Palestinians were the second largest group uprooted by the war, and 300,000 resettled in Jordan. There were a smaller number of Iraqi Arab refugees, only about 37,000, mostly shia who moved to Saudi Arabia. About 100,000 Iraqis escaped to Jordan and Syria.[8]

Shia comprise 55% of the Iraqi population, but are excluded from the government by the Sunni Arabs.[8] There was a 1991 uprisings in Iraq Shia uprising in March 1991. Saddam Hussein regained control of the Shia dominated South in mid-March, and his cousin, Ali Hasan Majid, conducted public executions, bombarded city centers, and destroyed homes and mosques. 200,000 people died in the South between March and September 1991 from the violence. In 2003, there were 530,000 Iraqi refugees in Iran, mostly Shi’ite Arabs.[1][8]

1.85 million Kurds fled to the borders of Turkey and Iran.[8] Unlike the Shi'ites, the Kurds had a recognized political leadership—the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) that took control of northern Iraq. As a result of this formal political leadership, the revolution in the Kurdish north was much less violent than in the Shi’ite South, and produced relatively few refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).[8]

In late March 1991, the Bush administration gave the Iraqi government permission to use helicopters against the Kurds. These were used to terrorize the Kurdish population. About 450,000 Kurds fled to the mountains bordering Turkey and Iran, and the Hussein government had retaken control of the main Kurdish cities by April 3, 1991.[8] Turkey refused to allow the Kurds into the country, but there was significant media attention to the refugee population.[8] The Kurds on the Iranian border were more isolated and received less media attention, but Iran admitted some groups of refugees and the physical conditions were less harsh than on the Turkish border.[8]

In response to this humanitarian crisis, on April 8, 1991 the UN agreed to establish a safe haven in northern Iraq.[9] To this end, two days later the US and its allies established the northern no-fly zone. This was in conjunction with the highly successful British initiative Operation Provide Comfort.

In response to the humanitarian crisis, the US tried to station unarmed aid workers in northern Iraq, but the Kurds refused to return.[8] The US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Turkey then created a safe area between the cities of Amadiya, Dihok, and Zakho, and excluded the Iraqi military and police from the area. Near Zakho, the US military built a tent city to hold refugees, but it was not extensively used.[8] The Kurds eventually moved to the safe area.

On February 15, 1991, President George H.W Bush called upon the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam Hussein, which did not occur until 2003 under the administration of his son, President George W. Bush, and incited the recent Iraq War.[8]

Refugees from Iraq have increased in number since the US-led invasion into Iraq in March 2003. After Saddam Hussein fell in 2003, over 30,000 refugees returned home within two years. But by 2006, they were fleeing again due to sectarian violence that culminated with the al-Askari mosque bombing in February 2006.[1][2][4] The US occupation and ethnic conflict among Iraqis ended the minority Sunni governance and allowed the Shi’ite majority to regain control, which worried Iraq’s Sunni majority neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. Terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda have taken advantage of the chaos and violence to establish a presence in Iraq.[5]

As many as 110,000 Iraqis could be targeted as collaborators because of their work for coalition forces.[13] A May 25, 2007 article notes that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq have been granted refugee status in the United States.[14] Roughly 40% of Iraq's middle class is believed to have fled.[2][15][16] Most are fleeing systematic persecution and have no desire to return.[15]

There is also a significant number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Iraq.[1] As of April 2017 International Organization for Migration estimated that there were about 3 million Iraqis displaced within the country.[17] As the battle to retake areas from ISIS continues, thousands of Iraqis are being displaced on a daily basis.[18] Many IDPs face difficult conditions, and due to continued instability and lack of resource are unlikely to be able to go home in coming months.

At the end of July 2007 the NGO Coordinating Committee in Iraq (NCCI) and Oxfam International issued a report, Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq, that declared that one-third of the populace was in need of aid. The NCCI is an alliance of approximately 80 international NGOs and 200 Iraqi NGOs, formed in Baghdad in 2003. The report, based on survey research of the nation's civilian population, found that 70 percent of the Iraqi population lacks proper access to water supplies. Only 20 percent of the population has proper sanitation and 30 percent of children experience malnutrition. About 92 percent of children experience problems learning. These figures represent sharp increases since 2003.[19] There is a need to address the elderly, disabled population, and disadvantaged families through physical, mental, and social support to help them return to Iraq once the war ends and conditions are stabilized.[20]

Iraqi refugees have mainly fled into urban centers across region, rather than in refugee camps.[1] There are roughly 2 million Iraqi refugees living in countries neighboring Iraq[5][6] and 95% of them still live in the Middle East - although other nations in Europe have begun to accept Iraqi refugees.[4] It is difficult for refugees and their children to obtain legal status in a middle eastern country as they are treated as temporary "guests" rather than as "refugees".[5] Current regional host countries include Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iran, small numbers in Iraq, the Gulf States, and Turkey.[5] Only Egypt and Turkey have signed the UNHCR refugee convention, and even then with heavy restrictions and limited effective protection.[5]

Pre-war relations between Jordan and Iraq were positive, especially economically.[5] By 2009, Jordan had taken in roughly 700,000 Iraqi refugees since the war began, a high proportion for a country of only 6 million.[5] Until the end 2005, Iraqis were allowed into Jordan and could register as guests for 3–6 months without work authorization.[5] Renewal became more difficult after 2005 when Iraqi terrorists associated with Al Qaeda bombed a Jordan hotel, and the number of unregistered Iraqis increased.[5] In 2006, Jordan excluded single men and boys between age 17-35 from entering, then required all Iraqis produce a newly issued passport.[5] In February 2008, the Jordanian government began requiring Iraqi refugees to apply for a Jordan visa in Iraq rather than at the Jordanian border.[1] Only Iraqis who have been able to invest in Jordanian businesses or who employed in fields of national interest have been able to obtain long-term status and receive yearly residence permits, seek employment in specified fields, send their children to schools, and access public services.[5]

In the capital city of Jordan, Amman, the population blames Iraqis for increasing cost of housing and inflation.[5] Health facilities are free in Jordan regardless of legal status, but facilities in Iraqi neighborhoods are overstretched and many Iraqis are afraid of being identified as undocumented.[5] Additionally, water infrastructure in Jordan is inadequate to support the large influx of refugees.[5] A UNHCR-UNICEF international appeal to support the education of Iraqi children in Jordan, Syria, Egypt in Lebanon will give Jordan $80 million to absorb 50,000 Iraqi children into public schools.[5] Most refugees in Jordan lack legal status and stay hidden for fear of deportation, making aid efforts difficult.[1]

Syria has historically offered assistance to Iraqi refugees.[20] At the beginning of 2007, the UNHCR estimated that the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria was over 1.2 million.[1][20] 80–90% of the Iraqi refugee population lives in the capital city of Damascus.[5] The reason for its large refugee population can be attributed to more than just geography. Until 2007, Syria maintained an open-door policy to Iraqis fleeing the war-ravaged country.[1]

Many Iraqis in Syria live in poverty, and an estimated 50,000 Iraqi girls and women, many of them widows, are forced into prostitution just to survive.[21][22] According to the UNHCR, about 27% of Iraqi refugee families in Syria are without a breadwinner.[20]

Early in the recent Iraq war, Iraqis in Syria were the politically threatened Baath party, including supporters of Hussein's government.[5] But after the fighting began in Falluja in 2004, Shi'a were the main new entries to Syria.[5] Before the restrictions were imposed, Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria received 3 month visas or permits with extension possibilities.[5] However, the refugees are not entitled to work, but most do anyway due to lax enforcement on the part of the Syrian government.[5] There were few sanctions for those who overstay and fail to renew.[5]

Numbering over 1.2 million, Iraqi refugees comprise a large portion of Syria's population of 18 million.[20] This has caused an increase in the cost of living and caused a strain on infrastructure.[1][20] Sources like oil, heat, water and electricity were said to be becoming more scarce as demand had gone up.[23] Syrian's deputy foreign minister has stated that the price of food has increased by 30%, property prices by 40%, and rentals by 150%.[1][20] Water consumption rose by 21%, costing the Syrian government about 6.8 million US dollars in 2006.[20] The Iraqi population also strained the labor market: Syrian unemployment was 18% in 2006.[20] Refugees put a strain on health services (which are free in Syria), and Syria experienced public school overcrowding.[20] In 2005 and 2006, Syria used $162 million to offer aid to Iraqi refugees in the country.[20]

Syria once maintained an open border for Arab migrants, and entitled Iraqi refugees to Syrian health care and schools.[5] The Syrian government accepted Iraqis as prima facie refugees.[5] However, on October 1, 2007 news agencies reported that Syria re-imposed restrictions on Iraqi refugees, as stated by a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Under Syria's new rules, only Iraqi merchants, businessmen and university professors with visas acquired from Syrian embassies may enter Syria.[1][24][25][26]

In 2012–13, as a Syrian civil war intensified, many Iraqi refugees fled the rising violence. Fewer than 200,000 Iraqis remained in Syria in 2012, according to the office of the Iraqi ambassador in Damascus. Many of the Iraqis were helped to return to Iraq by the provision of free flights and bus tickets, paid for by the Iraqi government. Tens of thousands of Iraqi families traveled back to their original country, although Iraq is itself unstable, and sectarian bomb attacks occur there almost daily.[27]

The majority of Iraqis fleeing back from Syria in 2012 were Shia according to a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration. The UN refugee agency said Iraqis in the mainly Shia Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeinab were fleeing not only increasing violence but "targeted threats" against them. In July 2012, the most intense fighting of the 17-month-old Syrian conflict began. Rebels took over whole neighborhoods of the Syrian capital, and government forces responded ferociously. Amid the fighting, it appears rebel fighters specifically targeted Iraqis. According to the UN, an Iraqi family of seven was killed at gunpoint in their Damascus apartment. 23 Iraqi refugees were reported killed in July, some by beheaded, according to the Washington-based Shiite Rights Watch. The attacks reflect the sectarian nature of Syria's war, In which opposition mostly from the country's Sunni majority has risen up against the government of Syrian President Assad. Motives for attacks against Iraqi refugees are unclear, but may be due to antagonism towards Shia generally, because of their sectarian association with the government, or because Iraq's Shiite-led government is perceived as siding with Assad. Though Baghdad has publicly vowed not to become involved with Syria's war, skeptics believe it is at least helping Iran ship weapons and reinforcements to Assad's government. In March, the US urged Baghdad to cut off its airspace to flights headed to Syria from Iran, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to curb arms smuggling across his borders into Syria.[28]

Many Shi'a Iraqis fleeing Saddam Hussein in the 1990s moved to Lebanon. A 2007 article by the journal Middle East Report reported that Lebanon hosted around 40,000 Iraqi refugees.[7] About 80% of Iraqi refugees live in Lebanon's capital of Beirut, contrary to many other Middle Eastern countries where Iraqi refugees are entirely concentrated in an urban center.[7] Lebanon has instituted a policy of non-refoulement. Refugees living in Lebanon cannot be forcibly deported if their lives will be in danger in their home countries.[7] Like in other Middle Eastern host countries, Iraqi refugees in Lebanon face the negative effects of unemployment and poverty as they cannot obtain work visas.[7]

Egypt, which does not border Iraq, became a major destination for Iraqi refugees in 2006. Iraqi refugees entered Egypt extremely quickly. Only 800 refugees were in Egypt in 2003, but by 2006, there were almost 150,000 Iraqis in Egypt.[7][29] In 2007, Egypt imposed restrictions on the entry of new refugees into the country.

Since 2006, Iraqis have been the leading nationality seeking asylum in industrialized countries.[4] Increasing tensions in the Middle East and the treatment of Iraqi refugees as temporary guests in the Arab states has led to increased travel distance for Iraqi asylum seekers.[2]

Sweden has seen a surge of refugees from Iraq since 2007. Sweden currently accepts more than half of all asylum applications from Iraqis in Europe. In 2006, more than 9,000 Iraqis fled their country and came to Sweden seeking shelter, a four times increase over 2005. Sweden's immigration authority expects up to 40,000 Iraqis seeking asylum in 2007. An estimated 79,200 Iraqis call Sweden their home. Many Iraqis fled to Sweden during the 90's as well. Current refugees like Sweden because many of their relatives are there and because of the generous refugee policies.[30]

In early February 2007 the United States and the United Nations developed a plan to resettle several thousand refugees in the United States.[1] In an initial step, refugees would apply for applicant status.[31] The US aimed to settle at least 5,000 refugees in the US by the end of 2007.[32] Kristele Younes of Refugees International supported these moves towards resettlement, but she said that "the numbers remain low compared to what the needs are."[33] A July 22, 2007 article notes that in 2007 only 133 of the planned 7000 Iraqi refugees were allowed into the United States.[13] Of the refugees' status, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts) said, "We can’t solve the problem alone, but we obviously bear a heavy responsibility for the crisis."[33]

Iraqi refugees looking to live in the United States must apply to the US Refugee Admission Program (USRAP).[34] USRAP involves both governmental and non-governmental partners to resettle refugees in the United States.[34] The US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) has overall management responsibility of USRAP.[34] The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) interview refugee applicants and review applications for refugee status.[34] The PRM coordinates with the UNHCR for Iraqi refugee referrals.[34]

The USRAP, UNHCR, and DHS prioritize refugees who are affiliated with the US government and religious minorities.[34] Iraqis can be referred by the UNHCR, a US embassy, some NGOs, the US government, a US contractor, a US media organization, eligible family members in the US, and the US military.[34][35] USCIS officers interview Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq, and have not been able to work in Syria since March 2011.[34] Applicants to the USRAP must fall under the US's legal definition of "refugee", having "suffered past persecution or [have] a well founded fear of future persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion in his or her home country".[34] Iraqis in the US may apply for asylum with the USCIS if they cannot return to Iraq because they have been "persecuted or fear that they will be persecuted on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion".[34] Since 2007, 203,321 Iraqi nationals have been referred, the USCIS interviewed 142,670 applicants, approved 119,202 for resettlement, and 84,902 have arrived in the US, a tiny fraction of those who wish to apply.[5][34][35] Refugees in America are usually settled in small towns rather than big cities because they receive community support that helps them navigate their new life.[35]

According to the List Project, led by Kirk W. Johnson, "Poland, which had approximately 2,500 troops at its peak, was scheduled to withdraw its forces from Iraq by October 2008. Building on the successful precedent set by Denmark and the eventual British airlift, the Polish government offered all of their Iraqi employees either full resettlement or a one-time payment of $40,000 if they remained in Iraq."[37]

Among Iraqi refugees in Germany, about 50 percent are Kurds.[38] In the UK, about 65-70% of people originating from Iraq are Kurdish, and 70% of those from Turkey and 15% of those from iran are Kurds.[39]

Perhaps as many as half a million Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Armenians are thought to have fled the sectarian fighting in Iraq, with Christians bearing the brunt of animosity toward a perceived "crusade" by the United States in Iraq. Most chose to go to Syria due to the cultural similarities between the two countries, Syria's open-door policy to Iraqis, and the large population of Assyrians and other Christians in the country which perhaps totals as high as 2 million. The large influx of Iraqis may tip the demographic scale in a country with a diverse population.[40][41] Although Christians represent less than 5% of the total Iraqi population, they make up 40% of the refugees now living in nearby countries, according to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.[42] Between October 2003 and March 2005 alone, 36% of 700,000 Iraqis who fled to Syria were Assyrians and other Christians, judging from a sample of those registering for asylum on political or religious grounds.[43][44][45][46][47]

Mandaeans are an ancient ethnoreligious group in southern Iraq. They are the last practicing gnostic sect in the Middle East. There are thought to have been about 40,000 Mandaeans in Iraq prior to the US-led invasion. As a non-Muslim group, they have been abused by sectarian militias. The vast majority of Baghdadi Mandaeans left Baghdad; many have fled to Syria, Jordan and elsewhere[48] while Mandaean communities of southern Iraq are mostly secure. Mandaean diaspora organizations are reportedly focusing all their resources on evacuating all the remaining Mandaeans in Iraq.[citation needed]

A small Palestinian population of about 38,000 also faced pressure, with many living in the Baghdadi neighborhood of al-Baladiya.

Denied access by Syria, more than 350 Palestinians remained in "inhumane conditions" on the Syrian border until finally being allowed into the country. They face more uncertain conditions because most Palestinians do not hold Iraqi citizenship and consequently do not hold passports. The UNHCR appealed to Israel to allow this particular group of refugees admission into the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The agency said that from resettlement countries, only Canada and Syria had taken Palestinians from Iraq in the past.

Iraqi refugee populations face unique challenges, particularly since they are located in urban centers rather than in refugee camps. Access to public services like health care and education is very limited for refugees. In late 2007, less than 40% of Iraqi refugee children attended school.[6] In many host countries, education is offered free of charge to all children, including refugees. However, the cost of books, uniforms, and a lack of inexpensive transportation prevents many Iraqi refugee children from actually attending school.[6][7] There is little data available on the health status of Iraqi refugees, but limited reports indicate that they suffer worse health than that of their host populations.[6] Psychological health care is especially crucial yet lacking, as many Iraqis suffer psychologically as a result of witnessing extreme violence.[7] The current lack of health care contrasts greatly to the high-quality and accessible health services offered in Iraq before the 2003 invasion.[6]

On April 17, 2007 an international conference on the Iraqi refugee crisis began in Geneva, Switzerland. Attendees included Human Rights Watch representatives, US Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representatives and members of 60 other Non-Governmental Organizations.[49] The World Health Organization began a two-day conference in Damascus, Syria, on July 29, 2007. The conference addressed the health requirements of the more than two million refugees from Iraq. Aside from the WHO, participants in the conference included the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, and various UN agencies.[50]

On September 18, 2007, the UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and WFP launched an appeal for $84.8 million to help host countries meet health and nutrition needs of Iraqi refugees. The funds support clinics, facilities, medicines, and medical supplies.[5] In 2007, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, UN agencies, and NGOs assisting Iraqi refugees received about $60 million to better provide for Iraqi refugee populations.[6] $27 million was allocated to health care as part of the UN joint health appeal.[6] As of 2007, the US has pledged $18 million and the European Union has pledged 50 million euros to assist Iraqi refugees.[6]

1.
Iraqi Kurdistan
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Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region by the Iraqi constitution, is located in the north of Iraq and constitutes the countrys only autonomous region. The region is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with the capital being Erbil. Kurdistan is a democracy with its own regional Parliament that consists of 111 seats. Masoud Barzani, who was elected as president in 2005, was re-elected in 2009. In August 2013 the parliament extended his presidency for two years. His presidency concluded on 19 August 2015 after the parties failed to reach an agreement over extending his term. The new Constitution of Iraq defines the Kurdistan Region as an entity of Iraq. The four governorates of Duhok, Hawler, Silemani, and Halabja comprise around 41,710 square kilometres and have a population of 5.5 million. In 2014, during the 2014 Iraq Crisis, Iraqi Kurdistans forces also took much of the disputed territories of Northern Iraq. The establishment of the Kurdistan Region dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting, further, the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War, especially the Iraqi Armys Al-Anfal Campaign, devastated the population and environment of Iraqi Kurdistan. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, in 1992, the major political parties in the region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, established the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new constitution in 2005, the name Kurdistan literally means Land of the Kurds. The suffix -stan is Iranian for place of or country, in English translations of the Constitution of Iraq, it is called Kurdistan, four times in the phrase region of Kurdistan and once in the phrase Kurdistan region. The regional government calls it the Kurdistan Region, the full name of the government is the Kurdistan Regional Government, abbreviated KRG. Kurds also refer to the region as Başûrê Kurdistanê or Başûrî Kurdistan, during the Baath Party administration in the 1970s and 1980s, the region was called the Kurdish Autonomous Region. The Kurdistan Region is largely mountainous, with the highest point being a 3,611 m point known locally as Cheekha Dar, the mountains are part of the larger Zagros mountain range which also extends into Iran. There are many rivers running through the region, which is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, the Great Zab and the Little Zab flow from the east to the west in the region. The Tigris river enters Iraqi Kurdistan from Turkish Kurdistan, the mountainous nature of Iraqi Kurdistan, the difference of temperatures in its various parts, and its wealth of waters make it a land of agriculture and tourism

2.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991

3.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations

4.
Refugee
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A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the state or the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations have a second Office for refugees, which is the UNRWA. This however is solely responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees and it refers to shelter or protection from danger or distress, from Latin fugere, to flee, and refugium, a taking refuge, place to flee back to. In Western history, the term was first applied to French Huguenots, after the Edict of Fontainebleau, who again migrated from France after the Edict of Nantes revocation. The word meant one seeking asylum, until around 1914, when it evolved to mean one fleeing home and this legal concept of a refugee was expanded by the Conventions 1967 Protocol. European Unions minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art, in UN parlance, the concept of refugee also includes descendants of refugees but only in the case of two specific groups, viz. Palestinian refugees and Sahrawi refugees. The UN does not consider refugee status to be hereditary for any other group, the UNHCR also protects people in refugee-like situations. It gives credence to the notion that personal individualized ‘fear of being persecuted’ is the reason for needing support. War, upheaval, famine and pestilence do not in the conventional definition make for refugee status. It does not matter that civilian deaths as a proportion of deaths in war escalated to 10% in World War I and it only matters that persons fear the persecution of their state. Furthermore, not all reasons for seeking asylum in another country satisfy the definition of refugee according to article 1A of the 1951 Refugee Convention, fleeing droughts and hunger, fleeing economic hardship, natural disasters and not even war or terror satisfied the definition of 1951. The idea that a person who sought sanctuary in a place could not be harmed without inviting divine retribution was familiar to the ancient Greeks. However, the right to asylum in a church or other holy place was first codified in law by King Æthelberht of Kent in about AD600. Similar laws were implemented throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the related concept of political exile also has a long history, Ovid was sent to Tomis, Voltaire was sent to England. By the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, nations recognized each others sovereignty, the term refugee is sometimes applied to people who might fit the definition outlined by the 1951 Convention, were it to be applied retroactively. The repeated waves of pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the 19th, beginning in the 19th century, Muslim people emigrated to Turkey from Europe. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 caused 800,000 people to leave their homes, various groups of people were officially designated refugees beginning in World War I

5.
Iraq War
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The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict and it became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion began on 20 March 2003, with the U. S. joined by the United Kingdom and several allies, launching a shock. Iraqi forces were overwhelmed as U. S. forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Baathist government, President Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December of that same year, the United States responded with a troop surge in 2007. The winding down of U. S. involvement in Iraq accelerated under President Barack Obama, the U. S. formally withdrew all combat troops from Iraq by December 2011. Select U. S. officials accused Saddam of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, while others cited the desire to end a repressive dictatorship, after the invasion, no substantial evidence was found to verify the initial claims about WMDs. The rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence faced heavy criticism within the U. S. in the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014, the al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the countrys Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions. The Iraq War caused hundreds of thousands of civilian, and thousands of military casualties, the majority of casualties occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. A1990 Frontline report on The arming of Iraq said, Officially, most Western nations participated in an arms embargo against Iraq during the 1980s. Western companies, primarily in Germany and Great Britain, but also in the United States, sold Iraq the key technology for its chemical, missile, any Western governments seemed remarkably indifferent, if not enthusiastic, about those deals. N Washington, the government consistently followed a policy which allowed and perhaps encouraged the growth of Saddam Husseins arsenal. The Western arming of Iraq took place in the context of the Iran-Iraq War, prior to September 2002, the CIA was the George W. Bush administrations main provider of intelligence on Iraq. The agency was out to disprove linkage between Iraq and terrorism the Pentagon adviser told me, the U. N. had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such weapons after the Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections confirming compliance. This was confirmed by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, during 2002, Bush repeatedly warned of military action against Iraq unless inspections were allowed to progress unfettered. In accordance with U. N. Security Council Resolution 1441, Iraq agreed to new inspections under United Nations Monitoring, as part of its weapons inspection obligations, Iraq was required to supply a full declaration of its current weapons capabilities and manufacturing

6.
Invasion of Kuwait
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The Invasion of Kuwait on August 2,1990 was a 2-day operation conducted by Iraq against the neighboring state of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. These events came to be known as the first Gulf War and resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the Iraqis setting 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire during their retreat. The invasion started on 2 August 1990, and within two days most of the Kuwait Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fell back to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The State of Kuwait was annexed, and Saddam Hussein announced a few days later that it was the 19th province of Iraq, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Kuwait initially stayed neutral and also tried mediating between Iran and Iraq. In 1982, Kuwait along with other Arab states of the Persian Gulf supported Iraq in order to curb Iranian Revolutionary government, in 1982–1983, Kuwait began sending significant financial aid to Iraq. Kuwaits large-scale economic assistance to Iraq often triggered hostile Iranian actions against Kuwait, Iran repeatedly targeted Kuwaiti oil tankers in 1984 and fired weapons at Kuwaiti security personnel stationed on Bubiyan island in 1988. During the Iran–Iraq War, Kuwait functioned as Iraqs major port once Basra was shut down by the fighting. By the time the Iran–Iraq War ended, Iraq was not in a position to repay the US$14 billion it borrowed from Kuwait to finance its war. Iraq argued that the war had prevented the rise of Iranian hegemony in Kuwait, however, Kuwaits reluctance to pardon the debt created strains in the relationship between the two countries. During late 1989, several meetings were held between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi leaders but they were unable to break the deadlock between the two. Chalabi argued that oil prices would help Iraq increase its revenues. Throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwaits oil production was considerably above its mandatory OPEC quota, a lack of consensus among OPEC members undermined Iraqs efforts to end the oil glut and consequently prevented the recovery of its war-crippled economy. It was estimated that between 1985 and 1989, Iraq lost US$14 billion a year due to Kuwaits oil price strategy, Kuwaits refusal to decrease its oil production was viewed by Iraq as an act of aggression against it. The increasingly tense relations between Iraq and Kuwait were further aggravated when Iraq alleged that Kuwait was slant-drilling across the border into Iraqs Rumaila field. The dispute over Rumaila field started in 1960 when an Arab League declaration marked the Iraq–Kuwait border 2 miles north of the southernmost tip of the Rumaila field, during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi oil drilling operations in Rumaila declined while Kuwaits operations increased. In 1989, Iraq accused Kuwait of using advanced drilling techniques to exploit oil from its share of the Rumaila field, Iraq estimated that US$2.4 billion worth of Iraqi oil was stolen by Kuwait and demanded compensation. Kuwait dismissed the accusations as a false Iraqi ploy to justify military action against it, several foreign firms working in the Rumaila field also dismissed Iraqs slant-drilling claims as a smokescreen to disguise Iraqs more ambitious intentions. Many westerners believed that Iraqs invasion of Kuwait was largely motivated by its desire to control over the latters vast oil reserves

7.
Sanctions against Iraq
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The sanctions against Iraq were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the Iraqi Republic. They began August 6,1990, four days after Iraqs invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003, and persisted in part, including reparations to Kuwait, through the present. The original stated purposes of the sanctions were to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, to pay reparations, initially the UN Security Council imposed stringent economic sanctions on Iraq by adopting and enforcing United Nations Security Council Resolution 661. After the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, those sanctions were extended and elaborated on, including linkage to removal of weapons of mass destruction, by Resolution 687. The sanctions banned all trade and financial resources except for medicine and in humanitarian circumstances foodstuffs and these sanctions included strict limits both on the items that could be imported into Iraq and on those that could be exported. Initially, the UN Sanctions Committee issued no complete list of items that could not be imported into Iraq, instead, it evaluated applications for importing items to Iraq on a case-by-case basis, in theory allowing foodstuffs, medicines and products for essential civilian needs and barring everything else. The Committee made its decision in secret, any Committee member could veto a permission without giving any reason, in 2002 the process was streamlined, and the sanctions committee established a Good Review List for certain items. Anything not on the Goods Review list could be imported without restriction, limitations on Iraqi exports made it difficult to fund the import of goods into Iraq. The Government of Iraq declined offers to enable Iraq to sell limited quantities of oil to meet its peoples needs, implementation of the Programme started in December 1996, its first shipment of supplies arrived in March 1997. The Programme was funded exclusively with the proceeds from Iraqi oil exports, at first, Iraq was permitted to sell $2 billion worth of oil every six months, with two-thirds of that amount to be used to meet Iraq’s humanitarian needs. In 1998, the limit was raised to $5.26 billion every six months, in December 1999, Security Council resolution 1284 removed the limit on the amount of oil exported. Of the 72% allocated to humanitarian purposes, 59% was earmarked for the contracting of supplies and equipment by the Government of Iraq for the 15 central, 13% for the three northern governorates, where the United Nations implemented the Programme on behalf of the Government of Iraq. Enforcement of the sanctions was primarily by means of military force, the legal side of sanctions were enforcement through actions brought by individual governments. In the United States, legal enforcement was handled by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, for example, in 2005 OFAC fined Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for gifting medicine and other humanitarian supplies to Iraqis without prior acquisition of an export license as required by law. In a similar case, OFAC is still attempting to collect a $10,000 fine, there is a general consensus that the sanctions achieved the express goals of limiting Iraqi arms. High rates of malnutrition, lack of supplies, and diseases from lack of clean water were reported during sanctions. The modern Iraqi economy had been dependent on oil exports, in 1989. A drawback of this dependence was the narrowing of the economic base, some claim that, as a result, the post-1990 sanctions had a particularly devastating effect on Iraq’s economy and food security levels of the population

8.
American occupation of Iraq
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It was a period of violence and political turmoil with strong foreign influence exerted on Iraqi politics. In April 2003, an occupation was established and run by the Coalition Provisional Authority. In June 2004, a government was established – the Iraqi Interim Government. Following parliamentary elections in January 2005, this administration was replaced in May by the Iraqi Transitional Government, a year later, the Al Maliki I Government took office. During this period, tens of thousands of military company personnel—many from abroad—were employed in the protection of infrastructure, facilities. A military occupation was established and run by the Coalition Provisional Authority, tens of thousands of private security personnel provided protection of infrastructure, facilities and personnel. Coalition and allied Iraqi forces fought a stronger-than-expected militant Iraqi insurgency, in mid-2004, the direct rule of the CPA was ended and a new sovereign and independent Interim Government of Iraq assumed the full responsibility and authority of the state. The CPA and the Governing Council were disbanded on 28 June 2004, the Iraqi Interim Government was replaced as a result of the elections which took place in January 2005. Prime Minister al-Jaafari led the majority party of the United Iraqi Alliance, both parties are backed by Tehran, and were banned by Saddam Hussein. The US-dominated multinational force in Iraq still exercise considerable power in the country and, with the Iraqi armed forces, the role of Iraqi government forces in providing security is increasing. According to Article 42 of the Hague Convention, territory is considered occupied when it is placed under the authority of the hostile army. The International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative states, the wording of Security Council resolution 1546, indicates that, regardless of how the situation is characterized, international humanitarian law will apply to it. There may be situations where the former occupier will maintain a presence in the country. Afterwards, the UN and individual nations established diplomatic relations with the Interim Government, which began planning for elections, if thats the wish of the government of Iraq, we will comply with those wishes. But no, we havent been approached on this issue – although obviously we stand prepared to engage the government on any issue concerning our presence here. On 10 May 2007,144 Iraqi Parliamentary lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, the current UN mandate under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1790 expired on 31 December 2008. On 1 May 2003, President Bush declared the end of combat operations in Iraq. The weeks following the removal of Baath Party rule were portrayed by American media as generally a time among the Iraqi populace

9.
Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous

10.
UNHCR
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Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981, following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In 1947, the International Refugee Organization was founded by the United Nations, the IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects of refugees lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced across Europe as a result of World War II. In the late 1940s, the IRO fell out of favor, however, the organization was only intended to operate for 3 years, from January 1951, due to the disagreement of many UN member states over the implications of a permanent body. UNHCRs mandate was set out in its statute, annexed to resolution 428 of the United Nations General Assembly of 1950. This mandate has been broadened by numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and its Economic. According to UNHCR, mandate is to provide, on a non-political and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees, soon after the signing of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, it became clear that refugees were not solely restricted to Europe. In 1956, UNHCR was involved in coordinating the response to the uprising in Hungary, the responses marked the beginning of a wider, global mandate in refugee protection and humanitarian assistance. By the end of the decade, two-thirds of UNHCRs budget was focused on operations in Africa and in just one decade, the organizations focus had shifted from an almost exclusive focus on Europe. In 1967, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees was ratified to remove the geographical and temporal restrictions of UNHCR under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. In the 1970s, UNHCR refugee operations continued to spread around the globe, adding to the woes in Asia was the Vietnam war, with millions fleeing the war-torn country. The 1980s saw new challenges for UNHCR, with member states unwilling to resettle refugees due to the sharp rise in refugee numbers over the 1970s. Often, these refugees were not fleeing wars between states, but inter-ethnic conflict in newly independent states, the targeting of civilians as military strategy added to the displacement in many nations, so even minor conflicts could result in a large number of displaced persons. As a result, the UNHCR became more involved with assistance programs within refugee camps. The end of the Cold War marked continued inter-ethnic conflict and contributed heavily to refugee flight, UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 and succeeded the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. UNHCR maintains a database of information, ProGres, which was created during the Kosovo War in the 1990s

11.
Kurdish refugees
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The problem of Kurdish refugees and displaced people arose in the 20th century in the Middle East, and continues to loom today. The Kurds, are an group in Western Asia, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. In Iraq, the Kurdish strive for autonomy and independence loomed into armed conflicts since 1919 Mahmud Barzanji revolt, tens of thousands of Kurds turned displaced and fled the war zones following First and Second Kurdish Iraqi Wars in 1960s and 1970s. Refugees themselves still comprise a significant proportion of For decades, Saddam Hussein Arabized northern Iraq, Sunni Arabs have driven out at least 70,000 Kurds from the Mosul’s western half. Nowadays, eastern Mosul is Kurdish and western Mosul is Sunni Arab, in 1991, when suppression of Kurdish rebellion in the north was initiated by Saddam and massacres of the Kurdish population appeared, Turkey ended being host to 200,000 Iraqi Kurds in a few days. Four days later,1,500 refugees had died from exposure, one month later, the vast majority of refugees returned back to Iraq. Following the 1991 uprising of the Iraqi people against Saddam Hussein, many Kurds were forced to flee the country to become refugees in bordering regions of Iran, a northern no-fly zone was established following the First Gulf War in 1991 to facilitate the return of Kurdish refugees. In total up to 3,000,000 people have been displaced in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, large-scale confrontations between Iranian military and PJAK resulted also in displacement of Kurdish civilians. After the 2004 events in Qamishli, thousands of Kurds fled Syria to the Kurdish Region of Iraq, local authorities there, the UNHCR and other UN agencies established the Moqebleh camp at a former Army base near Dohuk. The camp, which is majority Kurdish, accommodates thousands of Syrian Kurds, offering shelter, a nearby camp offers men the option of military training, with the intention of protecting Kurdish-held territories in Syria. As of result of the Kobane crisis in September 2014, most of the Syrian Kurdish population of the Kobane Canton fled into Turkey, more than 300,000 Syrian refugees are estimated to have flowed into Turkey. According to a report by the Council of Europe, approximately 1.3 million Kurds live in Western Europe, the earliest immigrants were Kurds from Turkey, who settled in Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, Great Britain, Switzerland and France during the 1960s. Successive periods of political and social turmoil in the region during the 1980s and 1990s brought new waves of Kurdish refugees, mostly from Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, came to Europe. In recent years, many Kurdish asylum seekers from both Iran and Iraq have settled in the United Kingdom, which has caused media controversy over their right to remain. There have been tensions between Kurds and the established Muslim community in Dewsbury, which is home to very traditional mosques such as the Markazi. Since the beginning of the turmoil in Syria many of the refugees of the Syrian Civil War are Syrian Kurds, there was substantial immigration of ethnic Kurds in Canada and the United States, who are mainly political refugees and immigrants seeking economic opportunity. Kurdish population in Nashville is estimated to be around 11,000, total number of ethnic Kurds residing in the United States is estimated by the US Census Bureau to be around 15,000. Almost all of the Kurdish Jews of north Iraq, who were numbered around 30,000 in 1950, were evacuated to Israel during operation Ezra and Nehemiah

12.
Kuwait
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Kuwait /kuːˈweɪt/, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in Western Asia. Situated in the edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it shares borders with Iraq. As of 2016, Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people,1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million are expatriates, expatriates account for 70% of the population. Oil reserves were discovered in 1938, from 1946 to 1982, the country underwent large-scale modernization. In the 1980s, Kuwait experienced a period of geopolitical instability, in 1990, Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. The Iraqi occupation came to an end in 1991 after military intervention by coalition forces, at the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. Kuwait is a constitutional emirate with a political system. It has an income economy backed by the worlds sixth largest oil reserves. The Kuwaiti dinar is the highest valued currency in the world, according to the World Bank, the country has the fourth highest per capita income in the world. The Constitution was promulgated in 1962, making Kuwait the most democratic country in the region, in the Arab world, Kuwait is frequently dubbed the Hollywood of the Gulf due to the popularity of its soap operas and theatre. During the Ubaid period, Kuwait was the site of interaction between the peoples of Mesopotamia and Neolithic Eastern Arabia, mainly centered in As-Subiya in northern Kuwait. The earliest evidence of habitation in Kuwait dates back 8000 B. C. where Mesolithic tools were found in Burgan. As-Subiya in northern Kuwait is the earliest evidence of urbanization in the whole Persian Gulf basin area, mesopotamians first settled in the Kuwaiti island of Failaka in 2000 B. C. Traders from the Sumerian city of Ur inhabited Failaka and ran a mercantile business, the island had many Mesopotamian-style buildings typical of those found in Iraq dating from around 2000 B. C. The Neolithic inhabitants of Kuwait were among the worlds earliest maritime traders, one of the worlds earliest reed-boats was discovered in northern Kuwait dating back to the Ubaid period. In 3rd century BC, the ancient Greeks colonized the bay of Kuwait under Alexander the Great, according to Strabo and Arrian, Alexander the Great named Failaka Ikaros because it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape. Remains of Greek colonization include a large Hellenistic fort and Greek temples, in 224 AD, Kuwait became part of the Sassanid Empire. At the time of the Sassanid Empire, Kuwait was known as Meshan, Akkaz was a Partho-Sassanian site, the Sassanid religions tower of silence was discovered in northern Akkaz

13.
Desert Storm
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991

14.
Kurds
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The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred to the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group

15.
Shi'as
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Shia is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Shia Islam primarily contrasts with Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor, instead they consider Abu Bakr to be the correct Caliph. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shias of Ali, Shias or the Shia as a collective or Shii individually, Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam, in 2009, Shia Muslims constituted 10–13% of the worlds Muslim population. Twelver Shia is the largest branch of Shia Islam, in 2012 it was estimated that perhaps 85 percent of Shias were Twelvers. Shia Islam is based on the Quran and the message of Muhammad attested in hadith, Shia consider Ali to have been divinely appointed as the successor to Muhammad, and as the first Imam. The word Shia means follower and is the form of the historic phrase shīʻatu ʻAlī, meaning followers of Ali, faction of Ali. Shia and Shiism are forms used in English, while Shiite or Shiite, as well as Shia, the term for the first time was used at the time of Muhammad. At present, the word refers to the Muslims who believe that the leadership of the community after Muhammad belongs to Ali, nawbakhti states that the term Shia refers to a group of Muslims that at the time of Muhammad and after him regarded Ali as the Imam and Caliph. Al-Shahrastani expresses that the term Shia refers to those who believe that Ali is designated as the Heir, Imam and caliph by Muhammad, for the Shia, this conviction is implicit in the Quran and history of Islam. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing, Shia search for the true meaning of the revelation to get the purpose of the life blood and the human destiny. Shia Muslims believe that just as a prophet is appointed by God alone and they believe God chose Ali to be Muhammads successor, infallible, the first caliph of Islam. The Shias believe that Muhammad designated Ali as his successor by Gods command, Ali was Muhammads first cousin and closest living male relative as well as his son-in-law, having married Muhammads daughter Fatimah. Ali would eventually become the fourth Muslim caliph, after the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad ordered the gathering of Muslims at the pond of Khumm and it was there that Shia Muslims believe Muhammad nominated Ali to be his successor. The hadith of the pond of Khumm was narrated on 18th of Dhu al-Hijjah of 10 AH in the Islamic calendar at a place called Ghadir Khumm, located near the city of al-Juhfah, Saudi Arabia. Muhammad there stated, Shia Muslims believe this to be Muhammads appointment of Ali as his successor, when Muhammad died in 632 CE, Ali and Muhammads closest relatives made the funeral arrangements. While they were preparing his body, Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali and his family accepted the appointment for the sake of unity in the early Muslim community. Alis rule over the early Muslim community was often contested, as a result, he had to struggle to maintain his power against the groups who betrayed him after giving allegiance to his succession, or those who wished to take his position. This dispute eventually led to the First Fitna, which was the first major civil war within the Islamic Caliphate, the Fitna began as a series of revolts fought against Ali ibn Abi Talib, caused by the assassination of his political predecessor, Uthman ibn Affan

16.
Saddam Hussein
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Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries, the state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraqs economy to grow at a rapid pace, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population. Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior. He suppressed several movements, particularly Shia and Kurdish movements, seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for his opposition to the United States, the total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddams government in various purges and genocides is unknown, but the lowest estimate is 250,000. Saddams Baath party was disbanded and elections were held, following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shiites and his execution was carried out on 30 December 2006. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son Saddam and he is always referred to by this personal name, which may be followed by the patronymic and other elements. He never knew his father, Hussein Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born, shortly afterward, Saddams 13-year-old brother died of cancer. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle Khairallah Talfah until he was three and his mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return, at about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Later in his relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Baath Party, during this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, in Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites. Moreover, the nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Baathists like Saddam. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya

17.
Palestinians
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Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the worlds Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, the history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars. Palestinian was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by Palestinian Arabs in a limited way until World War I, Modern Palestinian identity now encompasses the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period. Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before the international community. Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, herodotus also employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the Syrians of Palestine or Palestinian-Syrians, an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians. Herodotus makes no distinction between the Jews and other inhabitants of Palestine, the Greek word reflects an ancient Eastern Mediterranean-Near Eastern word which was used either as a toponym or ethnonym. In Ancient Egyptian Peleset/Purusati has been conjectured to refer to the Sea Peoples, among Semitic languages, Akkadian Palaštu is used of Philistia and its 4 city states. Biblical Hebrews cognate word Plištim, is usually translated Philistines, the Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the time of the earliest medieval Arab geographers. It appears to have used as an Arabic adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century CE. The Arabic newspaper Falasteen, published in Jaffa by Issa and Yusef al-Issa, the first Zionist bank, the Jewish Colonial Trust, was founded at the Second Zionist Congress and incorporated in London in 1899. The JCT was intended to be the instrument of the Zionist Organization. On 27 February 1902, a subsidiary of this Trust called the Anglo-Palestine Company was established in London with the assistance of Zalman David Levontin and this Company was to become the future Bank Leumi. Following the 1948 establishment of Israel, the use and application of the terms Palestine and Palestinian by, for example, the English-language newspaper The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post. Jews in Israel and the West Bank today generally identify as Israelis, Arab citizens of Israel identify themselves as Israeli and/or Palestinian and/or Arab. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father – whether in Palestine or outside it – is also a Palestinian. Thus, the Jews of Palestine were/are also included, although limited only to the Jews who had resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion. The Charter also states that Palestine with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is a territorial unit. The although the timing and causes behind the emergence of a distinctively Palestinian national consciousness among the Arabs of Palestine are matters of scholarly disagreement

18.
Sunni
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Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service

19.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
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The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a social democratic Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on May 22,1975, by coordination between Jalal Talabani, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Ali Askari, Fuad Masum, Adel Murad, and Abdul Razaq Faily. Talabani, a student leader, lawyer, journalist and resistance leader, has been the Secretary General of the PUK since its founding. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, and democracy and peace for the Kurdish people of Kurdistan, the current Deputy Secretary Generals are Kosrat Rasul Ali and Barham Salih. Fuad Masum, co-founder of the PUK, is the current President of Iraq, the PUK traces its political heritage to Sulaymaniyah native Ibrahim Ahmad. It was well-known in nationalist circles that the relations between the two men Mustafa and Qazi were not easy, Ibrahim Ahmad was soon joined by up-and-coming intellectual and socialist Jalal Talabani. Barzani and Ahmad were known to each other. But while each wanted to reduce the influence in the KDP. When the first Baath Party government was deposed in a coup led by Abdul Salam Arif, Mulla Mustafa signed an agreement with Arif in his personal capacity, rather than as president of the KDP. Arif threatened force against any Kurdish opponent of Mustafa, while Mustafa declared that any resistance to Baghdad would constitute a declaration of war against himself, Ibrahim Ahmad and Jalal Talabani decried this complicity, and as they saw it, submission, to Baghdad. Mulla Mustafa rallied the conservatives and tribal leaders to his side, furious debates and campaigning followed, but Ahmads and Talabanis arguments could not dislodge Mulla Mustafas position as the popular figurehead of the Kurdish people. At the 6th Party Congress of the KDP in July 1964, a few days later Mulla Mustafa sent his son, Idris Barzani with a large force to drive Ahmad, Talabani, and their 4,000 or so followers into exile in Iran. With that, Mulla Mustafa had finally achieved undisputed control of the KDP. After the defeat of the Kurds in the 1974–1975 Revolt, on May 22,1975, Talabani met in a shop called Gligla, in Aum Rmana, Damascus, with Fuad Mausm, Adel Murad. On 22, May 1975 the PUK announced its formation via Syrian, the day after, Talabani visited West Germany Berlin and met three other co-founders Nawshirwan Mustafa, Omar Shekhmus, and Kamal Fwad, and some other activist. On June 1,1975 the PUK was announced again in Berlin, the PUK served as an umbrella organization unifying various trends within the Kurdish political movement in Iraq. In 1992, the constituent groups within the PUK merged into a political movement that affirmed its social-democratic identity. Their communique ascribed the collapse of the revolt to the inability of the feudalist, tribalist, the PUK received grass roots support from the urban intellectual classes of Iraqi Kurdistan upon its establishment, partly due to 5 of its 7 founding members being PhD holders and academics

20.
Kurdistan Democratic Party
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The Kurdistan Democratic Party, usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is one of the main Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan, the KDP has been described as being controlled by Barzani tribe. In 1946, the leader of the Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad, Qazi Muhammad, announced the formation of a Kurdish Democratic Party based in Iran, or Eastern Kurdistan. The Soviet Union, then supporting the Kurdish national struggle against the monarchies of Iran and Iraq and it was well-known in nationalist circles that the relations between the two men were not easy. Barzani attempted to create a special dispensation for the Barzanis in Iran, but Qazi rebuffed them stating There is to be one party. In the meantime, Barzani was negotiating with Baghdad to allow his return to Iraq, the new KDP of Iraq held its first congress in Baghdad on August 16,1946. The 32 delegates elected a committee with Hamza Abd Allah as secretary-general, Shaykh Latif and Kaka Ziyad Agha as vice-presidents. The party demanded autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan, stating that the political, the party programme was not specific about any social or economic content for fear of alienating the highly conservative tribal chiefs and landlords who had agreed to support it. After the collapse of the Mahabad republic in early 1947, Ibrahim Ahmad, previously the Sulaymaniyah representative of the Iranian KDP, joined the Iraqi KDP. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the KDP and the Kurdish members of the Iraqi Communist Party steadily increased their working relationship – in many cases fielding joint candidates. By 1954 the KDP was advocating the replacement of the Iraqi monarchy with a democratic republic – much to the consternation of many of their tribal supporters. On July 14,1958, Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim and his fellow Free Officers staged a coup that promised a brighter future for the Kurds of Iraq. Although the KDP and ICP were excluded from the new United National Front government, Qasim formed a three-man Sovereignty Council of a Sunni, a Shii, and a Kurd. The KDP immediately pledged its support for the new regime, in its newspaper hailing a new era of freedom and equality for the Kurdish, Ibrahim Ahmad attempted to pressure Qasim into including Kurdish autonomy in the Provisional Constitution. However, Qasim was under greater pressure from his deputy Abdul Salam Arif. They objected to Qasims apparently pro-Kurdish attitude and his friendliness towards Mustafa Barzani in particular, Qasim had officially named him Chairman of the KDP, gave him one of Nuri as-Saids old residences in Baghdad, an automobile, and a handsome monthly stipend. While the Communists and Kurds settled scores, Qasim used the revolt as a pretext to purge Nationalists and Baathists from the Iraqi armed forces and government. Qasim used an almost identical event that July, but this time in Kirkuk, as a pretext to act against the KDPs closest allies, the Communists

21.
Internally Displaced Persons
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An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her countrys borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the definitions of a refugee. At the end of 2014, it was estimated there were 38.2 million IDPs worldwide, the highest level since 1989, the first year for which global statistics on IDPs are available. The countries with the largest IDP populations were Syria, Colombia, Iraq, in this way, the document intentionally steers toward flexibility rather than legal precision as the words in particular indicate that the list of reasons for displacement is not exhaustive. However, as Erin Mooney has pointed out, global statistics on internal displacement generally count only IDPs uprooted by conflict, moreover, a recent study has recommended that the IDP concept should be defined even more narrowly, to be limited to persons displaced by violence. It is very difficult to get accurate figures for internally displaced persons because populations arent constant, IDPs may be returning home while others are fleeing, others may periodically return to IDP camps to take advantage of humanitarian aid. While the case of IDPs in large camps such as those in Darfur, western Sudan, are relatively well-reported, it is difficult to assess those IDPs who flee to larger towns. It is necessary in many instances to supplement official figures with additional information obtained from operational humanitarian organizations on the ground, thus, the 24.5 million figure must be treated as an estimate. Additionally, most official figures include those displaced by conflict or natural disasters. Development-induced IDPs often are not included in assessments and it has been estimated that between 70 and 80% of all IDPs are women and children. 50% of internally displaced people and refugees were thought to be in areas in 2010. A2013 study found that these protracted urban displacements had not been given due weight by international aid, the study argues that this protracted urban displacement needs a fundamental change in the approach to those who are displaced and their host societies. They note that re-framing responses to urban displacement will also involve human rights and development actors, an updated country by country breakdown can be found online. The problem of protecting and assisting IDPs is not a new issue, in international law it is the responsibility of the government concerned to provide assistance and protection for the IDPs in their country. It has been estimated that some 5 million IDPs in 11 countries are without any significant humanitarian assistance from their governments, unlike the case of refugees, there is no international humanitarian institution which has the overall responsibility of protecting and assisting the refugees as well as the internally displaced. A number of organizations have stepped into the breach in specific circumstances. guided by the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The UNHCR has traditionally argued that it not have a general competence for IDPs even though at least since 1972 it had relief. However, in cases where there is a specific request by the UN Secretary General, in 2005 it was helping some 5.6 million IDPs, but only about 1.1 million in Africa

22.
Presidency of George H. W. Bush
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The presidency of George H. W. Bush began on January 20,1989, at noon Eastern Standard Time, when George H. W. Bush was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1993. Bush, a Republican, and incumbent Vice President of the United States and he was the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836. Later, Bush, the 41st United States president, and his oldest son, George W. Bush, Bush was denied a second term in the 1992 presidential election, which was won by Democrat Bill Clinton. International affairs drove the Bush presidency, with a strong team of foreign policy advisers, Bush helped the country navigate the end of the Cold War and a new era of U. S. –Soviet relations. He also led a coalition of countries which successfully forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait in the Gulf War. From the beginning of his term, Bush faced the problem of what to do about the federal budget debt, at $2.8 trillion in 1990, the deficit had grown to three times larger than it was in 1980. Bush was dedicated to curbing the deficit, believing that America could not continue to be a leader in the world doing so. Ultimately, Bush had no choice but to compromise with Congress and he also had to address the continuing Savings and Loans industry crisis, which proved equally contentious. Respondents also identified him as the most underrated president and he entered office at a period of change in the world, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet Union came early in his presidency. He ordered military operations in Panama and the Persian Gulf, and, in his Inaugural Address, Bush said, I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better, for a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn, for in mans heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, a new breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be taken, after wrapping up the 1988 Republican nomination, Bush selected Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, surprising many who expected Bush to select a more experienced running mate. Quayle was often mocked for his verbal gaffes, and many Republicans urged Bush to dump Quayle from the ticket, Bush selected a mostly new Cabinet, but kept around many former Reagan officials, including Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. Bushs long-time friend James Baker, who had served as Reagans Chief of Staff, Bushs Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, had served as Gerald Fords Chief of Staff and would later serve as vice president under George W. Bush. Bush appointed the two justices to the Supreme Court of the United States, in 1990, Bush appointed the largely unknown appellate judge David Souter to replace liberal icon William Brennan. Souter was easily confirmed and served until 2009, but joined the bloc of the court. In 1991, Bush nominated the conservative Clarence Thomas to succeed Thurgood Marshall, Thomas won confirmation after contentious hearings in a narrow 52-48 vote, and Thomas became one of the most conservative justices of his era

23.
Iraqi no-fly zones
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Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by U. S. British, while the enforcing powers had cited United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 as authorizing the operations, the resolution contains no explicit authorization. The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, from 1992 to the United States-led coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were two NFZs in Iraq. The NFZ in the north of Iraq was established shortly after the Gulf War, in August 1992 the NFZ in the south to the 32nd parallel was established, but in 1996 it was expanded to the 33rd parallel. The northern NFZ was initially part of Operation Provide Comfort relief operations to a persecuted Kurdish minority in Iraq, the southern NFZ was maintained by Operation Southern Watch. When Operation Desert Storm ended in 1991, the safety of Kurds who were fleeing during the uprising from Iraqi persecution became an issue and this operation essentially created a Northern NFZ to Iraqi military aircraft. The operation provided the Kurdish population with humanitarian aid and reassurance of safe skies, Operation Provide Comfort officially ended on 31 December 1996. Following Operation Provide Comfort, the United States continued to watch over the skies with the launching of Operation Northern Watch on 1 January 1997. Operation Northern Watch continued to provide air security to the Kurdish population in the north, by 1999, the Department of Defense had flown over 200,000 sorties over Iraq. American and British aircraft continuously maintained the integrity of the NFZ, the operation ran until its conclusion on 1 May 2003. In the south, Operation Southern Watch was underway to watch over the persecuted Shiite populations and this operation was launched on 27 August 1992 with the mission of preventing further human rights abuses against civilian populations. Iraq challenged the no-fly zone beginning in December 1992 when a USAF F-16 fighter plane shot down an Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat fighter which had locked onto it in the Southern no-fly zone, the next month Allied planes attacked Iraqi SAM sites in the South. Baghdad eventually halted firing on patrolling Allied aircraft after August 1993, in the aftermath of Operation Desert Fox in December 1998, Iraq announced it would no longer respect the no-fly zones and resumed its efforts in shooting down Allied aircraft. Saddam Hussein offered a $14,000 reward to anyone who could accomplish this task, air strikes by British and American aircraft against Iraqi claimed anti-aircraft and military targets continued weekly over the next few years. In the early 2000s, the U. S. developed a contingency plan, the operation continued until it transitioned to Operation Southern Focus in June 2002. They began to carry out offensive sorties, not only against targets that had fired on them and their records indicate that in the first seven months of 2001, there had been 370 provocations on the part of Iraq. In the seven months from October 2001 into May 2002, only 32 such provocations were recorded, the U. S. and British operations had the effect of reducing Iraqi ability to counter airstrikes prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The NFZs effectively ceased to exist with the beginning of the Iraq War in March 2003, the NFZs were officially deactivated right after Saddam Husseins overthrow

24.
Operation Provide Comfort
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Operation Haven by the British name – was a British initiative, made at a time when the U. S. was fundamentally uninterested in any further taking of action in the Gulf. The British Prime Minister’s lobbying of European colleagues achieved NATO support, then as Saddam’s retribution activities escalated, U. S. ground and logistic support was also achieved. It was deemed successful, even though it appeared to be risky given the climate of those times. The Coalitions main task was to enter Northern Iraq, clear the area of the Iraqi threat. The ground mission within Iraq took 58 days to complete, Operation Provide Comfort/Haven officially ended shortly after and the enforcement of the No Fly Zone continued to ensure security in the region. The 1991 uprising in northern Iraq resulted in an Iraqi military response towards the rebels in northern and southern Iraq. Fearing a massacre like what had happened during the 1988 Anfal campaign, on 3 March, General Norman Schwarzkopf warned the Iraqis that Coalition aircraft would shoot down Iraqi military aircraft flying over the country. On 20 March, an American F-15C Eagle fighter aircraft shot down an Iraqi Air Force Su-22 Fitter fighter-bomber over northern Iraq, on 22 March, another F-15 destroyed a second Su-22 and the pilot of an Iraqi PC-9 trainer bailed out after being approached by American fighters. On 5 April, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 688, on 6 April, Operation Provide Comfort began to bring humanitarian relief to the Kurds. A no-fly zone was established by the U. S. the UK and this was enforced by American, British, and French aircraft. Included in this effort was the delivery of relief and military protection of the Kurds by a small Allied ground force based in Turkey. Also participating was the 3/325 Airborne Battalion Combat Team, based in Vicenza, Italy, and commanded by then-Lt. With the 3/325, was a Task Force of 6 UH-60 Blackhawks and highly trained crews led by Cpt Morrow of the 5th Quarter Master Detachment in Kaiserslautern, and SSG Bluman from Giebelstadt, Germany. Fifteen UH-60 Blackhawks and five OH-58D helicopters, crews, and support personnel from the 11th ACR in Fulda, the 11th ACR contingent remained there until mid October. The Brigade was the last unit to leave the area at the conclusion of operations, several members received the Soldiers medal after calling in and assisting in the MEDEVAC of a wounded Iraqi National from a minefield near the river not far from the MP Headquarters camp. While Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm were run by the U. S, central Command, Operation Provide Comfort came under the authority of the U. S. European Command, headquartered in Vaihingen, Germany and these units were relocated to Turkey and Northern Iraq after completing missions in Kuwait. The base camps that were established for Kurdish refugees were nicknamed Camp Jayhawk and he led a team of fifteen that is now known as the first Air Force unit to enter Iraq

25.
Amadiya
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Amadiya /ˌɑːməˈdiːə/ is an Assyrian and Kurdish populated town and popular summer resort and Hill station along a tributary to the Great Zab in the Dahuk Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan. The city is situated 4,600 feet above sea level, the history of the city of Amadiya goes back as far as ancient Assyria, and it has probably existed even prior to that due to its strategic place on the flat top of a mountain. It was an Ancient Assyrian city known as Amedi from the 25th century BC until the end of the 7th century BC with the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Amadiya was the birthplace of the pseudo-Messiah, David Alroy. In 1163, according to Joseph ha-Kohens Emeḳ ha-Baka, the Jewish population numbered about a thousand families, Alroy led a revolt against the city but was apparently defeated and killed in the process. The Spanish Jewish historian R. Schlomo Ibn Verga portrayed the Jewish community of Amadiya at the time of Alroy as wealthy, Amadiya was the seat of the semi-autonomous Badinan Emirate, which lasted from 1376 to 1843. At the turn of the 19th century, the population already numbered 6,000, there are ruins from the Assyrian era and ruins of a synagogue and a church in the small town. The city also has an ancient mosque and a church, the town is perched on a mountain, formerly only accessible by a narrow stairway cut into the rock. Amedia has a community of Christian Assyrians and Muslim Kurds who share the city. A border crossing was once at at Habur, the town is 1,100 yards long and 550 yards wide. It houses 6,000 citizens in almost 1,200 houses, Amadiya has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate with short hot summers and long, cool, wet winters. Being the most northerly city in Iraq, it is the most mildest city in the country

26.
Dihok
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The city is encircled by mountains along the Tigris river. Dohuk has a growing tourist industry and its population has increased rapidly since the 1990s, as the rural population moved to the cities. The University of Dohuk, founded in 1992, is a center for teaching. Another theory is that the name comes from Taok due to the fact that the region is well known for vine trees. The Syriac name Bēṯ Nūhadrā translates to House/Land of the military leader and it refers to a small village nearby which is a district in the city due to the growth of the city during the last century. The name Nūhadrā continues to be used in reference to the city and is also a name among Assyrian women. Throughout history to the present time, Duhok has acquired a position historically and geographically. During the Christian era became an eparchy within the Assyrian Church of the East metropolitanate of Ḥadyab, the city became prominent again in 1236, when Hasan Beg Saifadin joined the Kurdish Badinan principality. In 1842, the principality was dissolved by the Ottomans and connected to the city of Mosul, in 1898 there were according to a report eleven small and private schools in the city, two Assyrian Christian and two Jewish schools. In 1920 there were in all of Iraq only five schools that were accessible for girls. From 22 to 24 September 2005 Dohuk held a festival that was for the first time in Dohuk to which Kurdish writers from all countries were invited. The citys population is made up of around 340,000 inhabitants, the Assyrians of Dohuk boast one of the largest churches in the region named the Mar Marsi Cathedral, and is the center of an Eparchy. Another football team from the city is Zeravani SC which plays in the Kurdish Premier League, Dohuk also has a range of other sport clubs, notably the Duhok Basketball Club. Duhok SC basketball competes in the Iraqi Division I Basketball League, Duhok SC football club won the Iraqi premier league championship In the 2009/2010 season beating Talaba SC 1–0 to become the champions for the first time. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies this climate as a semi-arid climate, the temperatures are typical to the northern parts of Mesopotamia region, with extremely hot summers and relatively cool, wet winters. Precipitation falls in the cooler months

27.
Zakho
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Zakho is a city, at the centre of the eponymous Zakho District of the Dohuk Governorate of Iraq, located a few kilometers from the Iraqi-Turkish border. The city has a population of 350,000 and it may have originally begun on a small island surrounded on all sides by the Little Khabur river, which flows through the modern city. The Khabur flows west from Zakho to form the border between Iraq and Turkey, continuing into the Tigris, the most important rivers in the area are the Zeriza, Seerkotik and the aforementioned Little Khabur. In July 2010, Zakho became the seat of the University of Zakho, there are several theories concerning the derivation of the name Zakho. Some Aramaic sources maintain that the name comes from the Aramaic zāḵū, another version maintains that the name comes from the Kurdish words zey- khowin, possibly referring to the same battle. A third opinion attributes the name to the Kurdish for river bend, from zey, the town of Zakho was known to the ancient Greeks. In 1844, the traveller William Francis Ainsworth commented, The appearance of Zakho in the present day coincides in a manner with what it was described to be in the time of Xenophon. Gertrude Bell was convinced that Zakho was same place as the ancient town of Hasaniyeh and she also reported that the first Christian missionary to the region, the Dominican monk Poldo Soldini, was buried there in 1779. His grave was still a destination in the 1950s. Zakho was formerly known for its synagogues and large, ancient Jewish community and was known as The Jerusalem of Assyria, the Jews spoke the Aramaic of their ancestors. The banks of the nearby Khabur River are mentioned in the Bible as one of the places to which the Israelites were exiled, there were serious attacks on the Jews in 1891, when one of the synagogues was burnt down. The troubles intensified in 1892, with heavy taxes being imposed, outbreaks of looting, Jews from Zakho were among the first to emigrate to Palestine after 1920. Most of the relocated to Israel in the 1950s. Assyrians have lived in Zakho since at least the 5th century, with some Assyrian bishops being mentioned from the fifth to the seventh century, which indicates its long history. Additionally, The city was the center of a large Chaldean Catholic diocese up until the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the diocese was recently merged back into the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Amadiya in 2013 due to becoming vacant after the death of its Bishop in 2010. Prior to merging with Amadiya, The diocese comprised 3500 Assyrian Catholics, ten resident priests, fifteen parishes or stations, twenty churches and chapels, in regards to the city of Zakho itself, there is a large Assyrian population. The Armenians of Zakho established their community after the Armenian Genocide from 1915-1923, some of the Armenians of Zakho left in 1932 to found the village of Avzrog Miri in the plains west of the city of Simele. Zakho has served as a checkpoint for many decades and it is a major marketplace with its goods and merchandise serving the Kurdish controlled area and most of north and middle Iraq

28.
George H.W Bush
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George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he was referred to as George Bush or President Bush. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed his university studies, enlisted in the U. S. Navy on his 18th birthday and he served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, Bush became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives and Director of Central Intelligence, among other positions. He failed to win the Republican nomination for President in 1980, but was chosen as a mate by party nominee Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation, in 1988, Bush ran a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as President, defeating Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency, military operations were conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and, after a struggle with Congress and his presidential library was dedicated in 1997, and he has been active—often alongside Bill Clinton—in various humanitarian activities. Besides being the 43rd president, his son George also served as the 46th Governor of Texas and is one of only two other being John Quincy Adams—to be the son of a former president. His second son, Jeb Bush, served as the 43rd Governor of Florida, George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12,1924, to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Bush. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth, growing up, his nickname was Poppy. Bush began his education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US, Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy in 1942, he became a naval aviator at the age of 18. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron as the officer in September 1943. The following year, his squadron was based on USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, during this time, the task force was victorious in one of the largest air battles of World War II, the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After Bushs promotion to Lieutenant on August 1,1944, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands, Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima

29.
George W. Bush
–
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election and he is the second president to assume the nations highest office after his father, following the lead of John Quincy Adams. He is also a brother of Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida who was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bushs first term as president. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine, launching a War on Terror, a military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001. He also promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, Social Security reform and his tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and torture. In the 2004 Presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Bush left office in 2009, returning to Texas where he purchased a home in Crawford. He wrote a memoir, Decision Points and his presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians polls published in the late 2000s and 2010s. George Walker Bush was born on July 6,1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, as the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife, the former Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S and his father, George H. W. Bush, was Ronald Reagans Vice President from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U. S. President from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Welsh, Irish, French, Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade. He then spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a school in Houston. Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a school in Andover, Massachusetts

30.
2006 al-Askari Mosque bombing
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The 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing occurred at the al-Askari mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, on February 22,2006, at about 6,44 a. m. local time. The attack on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, is not claimed by any group, the mosque was severely damaged, but none were injured in the blast. On February 22,2006, at 6,44 a. m. explosions occurred at al-Askari Mosque, effectively destroying its golden dome, several men wearing military uniforms, had earlier entered the mosque, tied up the guards there and set explosives, resulting in the blast. Two bombs were set off by five to seven men dressed as personnel of the Iraqi special forces who entered the shrine during the morning, no injuries were reported following the bombing. However, the wall of the shrine was damaged by the bombs, causing the dome to collapse. Following the blast, American and Iraqi forces surrounded the shrine, five police officers responsible for protecting the mosque were taken into custody. The dome had been repaired by April 2009 and the shrine reopened to visitors, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the mosque. Abu Qudama confessed to taking part in the attack on al-Askari mosque in Samarra, the group then spent the rest of the night rigging the mosque with bombs. At dawn the next day, they detonated the explosives, bringing down the dome, in May 2007, also Iraqi officials blamed Al Qaeda of the attack. Before his death, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi listed among his goals the incitement of a war between Iraqs Shiites and Sunnis. In September 2006, Iraqi officials announced the capture of Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi in connection with the bombing, al-Badri was killed in August 2007. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel for the attack and he claimed that these heinous acts are committed by a group of Zionists and occupiers that have failed. As a result of the bombing, there was widespread violence throughout Iraq, according to the Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars,168 mosques were attacked in the two days following the bombing, while ten imams were murdered and fifteen others kidnapped. The Shiite controlled Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, the normal daily patrols of US coalition forces and Iraqi security forces were temporarily suspended in Baghdad during the few days following the bombing. In Najaf, shops were closed, while residents gathered at the citys 1920 Revolution Square for demonstrations, in Al Diwaniyah, all mosques, shops and markets were closed. Three Sunni Muslim clerics were shot dead by Shia militiamen, groups of armed men in civil vehicles seen in the streets. Up to 21 Sunni mosques were attacked in reprisals for the bombing, the attacks included shootings and acts of arson. Three mosques were destroyed by explosives

31.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981, following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In 1947, the International Refugee Organization was founded by the United Nations, the IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects of refugees lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced across Europe as a result of World War II. In the late 1940s, the IRO fell out of favor, however, the organization was only intended to operate for 3 years, from January 1951, due to the disagreement of many UN member states over the implications of a permanent body. UNHCRs mandate was set out in its statute, annexed to resolution 428 of the United Nations General Assembly of 1950. This mandate has been broadened by numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and its Economic. According to UNHCR, mandate is to provide, on a non-political and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees, soon after the signing of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, it became clear that refugees were not solely restricted to Europe. In 1956, UNHCR was involved in coordinating the response to the uprising in Hungary, the responses marked the beginning of a wider, global mandate in refugee protection and humanitarian assistance. By the end of the decade, two-thirds of UNHCRs budget was focused on operations in Africa and in just one decade, the organizations focus had shifted from an almost exclusive focus on Europe. In 1967, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees was ratified to remove the geographical and temporal restrictions of UNHCR under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. In the 1970s, UNHCR refugee operations continued to spread around the globe, adding to the woes in Asia was the Vietnam war, with millions fleeing the war-torn country. The 1980s saw new challenges for UNHCR, with member states unwilling to resettle refugees due to the sharp rise in refugee numbers over the 1970s. Often, these refugees were not fleeing wars between states, but inter-ethnic conflict in newly independent states, the targeting of civilians as military strategy added to the displacement in many nations, so even minor conflicts could result in a large number of displaced persons. As a result, the UNHCR became more involved with assistance programs within refugee camps. The end of the Cold War marked continued inter-ethnic conflict and contributed heavily to refugee flight, UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 and succeeded the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. UNHCR maintains a database of information, ProGres, which was created during the Kosovo War in the 1990s

32.
Internally displaced
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An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her countrys borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the definitions of a refugee. At the end of 2014, it was estimated there were 38.2 million IDPs worldwide, the highest level since 1989, the first year for which global statistics on IDPs are available. The countries with the largest IDP populations were Syria, Colombia, Iraq, in this way, the document intentionally steers toward flexibility rather than legal precision as the words in particular indicate that the list of reasons for displacement is not exhaustive. However, as Erin Mooney has pointed out, global statistics on internal displacement generally count only IDPs uprooted by conflict, moreover, a recent study has recommended that the IDP concept should be defined even more narrowly, to be limited to persons displaced by violence. It is very difficult to get accurate figures for internally displaced persons because populations arent constant, IDPs may be returning home while others are fleeing, others may periodically return to IDP camps to take advantage of humanitarian aid. While the case of IDPs in large camps such as those in Darfur, western Sudan, are relatively well-reported, it is difficult to assess those IDPs who flee to larger towns. It is necessary in many instances to supplement official figures with additional information obtained from operational humanitarian organizations on the ground, thus, the 24.5 million figure must be treated as an estimate. Additionally, most official figures include those displaced by conflict or natural disasters. Development-induced IDPs often are not included in assessments and it has been estimated that between 70 and 80% of all IDPs are women and children. 50% of internally displaced people and refugees were thought to be in areas in 2010. A2013 study found that these protracted urban displacements had not been given due weight by international aid, the study argues that this protracted urban displacement needs a fundamental change in the approach to those who are displaced and their host societies. They note that re-framing responses to urban displacement will also involve human rights and development actors, an updated country by country breakdown can be found online. The problem of protecting and assisting IDPs is not a new issue, in international law it is the responsibility of the government concerned to provide assistance and protection for the IDPs in their country. It has been estimated that some 5 million IDPs in 11 countries are without any significant humanitarian assistance from their governments, unlike the case of refugees, there is no international humanitarian institution which has the overall responsibility of protecting and assisting the refugees as well as the internally displaced. A number of organizations have stepped into the breach in specific circumstances. guided by the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The UNHCR has traditionally argued that it not have a general competence for IDPs even though at least since 1972 it had relief. However, in cases where there is a specific request by the UN Secretary General, in 2005 it was helping some 5.6 million IDPs, but only about 1.1 million in Africa

33.
Collaborationism
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Collaborationism is cooperation with the enemy against ones country in wartime. Stanley Hoffmann subdivided collaboration onto involuntary and voluntary, in contrast, Bertram Gordon used the terms collaborator and collaborationist for non-ideological and ideological collaborations, respectively. The meaning of traitorous cooperation with the dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Government of Frenchmen who cooperated with the Germans. During World War II, collaborators existed in several German-occupied zones, in France, a distinction emerged between the collaborateur and the collaborationniste. The latter expression is used to describe individuals enrolled in pseudo-Nazi parties, often based in Paris. Arch-collaborators like Pierre Laval or René Bousquet are thus distinct from collaborationists, recent research by the British historian Simon Kitson has shown that French authorities did not wait until the Liberation to begin pursuing collaborationists. The Vichy government, itself engaged in collaboration, arrested around 2000 individuals on charges of passing information to the Germans. It was among the many compromises that the government engaged along the way, in Belgium, collaborators were organized into the VNV party and the DeVlag movement in Flanders, and into the Rexist movement in Wallonia. There was an active movement in the Netherlands. Vidkun Quisling, a officer in the Norwegian Army and former minister of defence. He gave his name to the high-profile government collaborator, now known as a Quisling, after the German invasion of Greece, a Nazi-held government was put in place. All three quisling prime ministers, cooperated with the Axis authorities, main collaborationist regime in Yugoslavia was the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet-state semi-independent of Nazi Germany. The main collaborationist in East Yugoslavia was the axis-puppet Serbian government of Nedić, German citizen Franz Oppenhoff accepted appointment as Mayor of the German city of Aachen in 1944, under authority of the Allied military command. He was assassinated on orders from Heinrich Himmler in 1945, high-profile German collaborators included Dutch actor Johannes Heesters or English-language radio-personality William Joyce. In Palestinian society, collaboration with Israel is viewed as a serious offence, in addition, during the period of 2007–2009, around 30 Palestinians have been sentenced to death in court on collaboration-related charges, although the sentences have not been carried out. In June 2009, Raed Sualha, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, was tortured and hanged by his family because they suspected him of collaborating with Israel. Authorities of the Palestinian territories launched an investigation into the case, police said it was unlikely that such a young boy would have been recruited as an informer. Kitson, Simon, The Hunt for Nazi Spies, Fighting espionage in Vichy France, Chicago, littlejohn, David, The Patriotic Traitors, A History of Collaboration in German-Occupied Europe, 1940-45, London, William Heinemann Ltd

34.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

35.
Oxfam International
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Oxfam is an international confederation of charitable organizations focused on the alleviation of global poverty. It was one of local committees formed in support of the National Famine Relief Committee. Their mission was to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the citizens of occupied Greece. The first overseas Oxfam was founded in Canada in 1963, the organization changed its name to its telegraph address, OXFAM, in 1965. By 1960, it was a major international aid organization. The name Oxfam comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942, Oxfam International was formed in 1995 by a group of independent non-governmental organizations. Their aim was to work together for greater impact on the stage to reduce poverty. Stichting Oxfam International registered as a foundation at The Hague. Oxfams first paid employee was Joe Mitty, who working at the Oxfam shop on Broad Street. Engaged to manage the accounts and distribute donated clothing, he originated the policy of selling anything which people were willing to donate, Oxfams programmes address the structural causes of poverty and related injustice and work primarily through local accountable organizations, seeking to enhance their effectiveness. In November 2000, Oxfam adopted the approach as the framework for all the work of the Confederation. The right to a sustainable livelihood, and the right and capacity to participate in societies and make changes to peoples lives are basic human needs. Though Oxfams initial concern was the provision of food to relieve famine, Oxfam works on trade justice, fair trade, education, debt and aid, livelihoods, health, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, conflict and natural disasters, democracy and human rights, and climate change. Through programmes like Saving for Change, Oxfam is working to help communities become more self-sufficient financially, the Saving for Change initiative is a programme whereby communities are taught how to form collective, informal credit groups. Ultimately, the goal of the programme is to leave the community with an organization where people who otherwise would not qualify for formal bank loans can go for financial assistance. In doing so, borrowers can start businesses which benefit not only themselves, the Bosfam NGO was also founded in May 1995 by women participating in an Oxfam GB psycho-social radionice project to support internally displaced women during the Bosnian war. Oxfam has become a recognized leader in providing water sanitation to impoverished. In 2012, Oxfam became one of the groups that comprise the UKs Rapid Response Facility to ensure clean water in the wake of humanitarian disasters

36.
Refugee camp
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A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced persons who have fled their home country, usually refugees seek asylum after theyve escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental- and economic migrants. Camps with over a thousand people are common, but as of 2012 the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations, there are also unofficial refugee camps, like Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, where refugees are largely left without support of governments or international organizations. Refugee camps generally develop in a fashion with the aim of meeting basic human needs for only a short time. Facilities that make a camp look or feel more permanent are often prohibited by host country governments, if the return of refugees is prevented, a humanitarian crisis can result or continue. According to UNHCR, the majority of refugees worldwide do not live in refugee camps, at the end of 2015, some 67 per cent of refugees around the world lived in individual, private accommodations. This can be explained by the high number of Syrian refugees renting apartments in urban agglomerations across the Middle East. Worldwide, slightly over a quarter of refugees was reported to be living in planned/managed camps, at the end of 2015, about 56 per cent of the total refugee population in rural locations resided in a planned/managed camp, compared with 2 per cent who resided in individual accommodation. In urban locations, the majority of refugees lived in individual accommodations. A small percentage of refugees live in collective centers, transit camps. The average camp size is recommended by the UNHCR to be 45 sqm per person of accessible camp area, within this area the following facilities can usually be found, An administrative headquarters to coordinate services. Sleeping accommodations are frequently tents, prefabricated huts, or dwellings constructed of available materials. The UNHCR recommends a minimum of 3.5 sqm of covered living area per person, there should be at least 2m between shelters. Gardens attached to the family plot, the UNHCR recommends a plot size of 15 sqm per person. Hygiene facilities, such as washing areas, latrines or toilets, UNHCR recommends one shower per 50 persons and one communal latrine per 20 persons. Distance for the latter should be no more than 50m from shelter, hygiene facilities should be separated by gender. Places for water collection, either water tanks where water is off-loaded from trucks, UNHCR recommends 20 litres of water per person and one tap stand per 80 persons that should be no farther than 200m away from households

37.
Al Qaeda
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It operates as a network made up of Islamic extremist, Salafist jihadists. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries, including the 1998 U. S. embassy bombings, the September 11 attacks, the U. S. government responded to the September 11 attacks by launching the War on Terror. Characteristic techniques employed by al-Qaeda include suicide attacks and the bombing of different targets. Al-Qaeda ideologues envision a complete break from all foreign influences in Muslim countries, among the beliefs ascribed to al-Qaeda members is the conviction that a Christian–Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam. Al-Qaeda also opposes what it regards as man-made laws, and wants to replace them with a form of sharia law. Al-Qaeda has carried out attacks on targets it considers kafir. Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating violence among Muslims. Al-Qaeda leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and have attacked their mosques, examples of sectarian attacks include the Yazidi community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the Ashoura massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings. Since the death of bin Laden in 2011, the group has been led by the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaedas management philosophy has been described as centralization of decision and decentralization of execution. Many terrorism experts do not believe that the global jihadist movement is driven at every level by al-Qaedas leadership, marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former Central Intelligence Agency officer, said that al-Qaeda is now just a loose label for a movement that seems to target the west. We like to create an entity called in our minds. This view mirrors the account given by Osama bin Laden in his October 2001 interview with Tayseer Allouni and this matter isnt about any specific person and. is not about the al-Qaidah Organization. We are the children of an Islamic Nation, with Prophet Muhammad as its leader, and all the true believers are brothers. So the situation isnt like the West portrays it, that there is an organization with a specific name and that particular name is very old. It was born without any intention from us, created a military base to train the young men to fight against the vicious, arrogant, brutal, terrorizing Soviet empire. So this place was called The Base, as in a base, so this name grew. We arent separated from this nation, and so we discuss the conscience of this nation. Bruce Hoffman, however, sees al-Qaeda as a network that is strongly led from the Pakistani tribal areas

38.
Amman
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Amman is the capital and most populous city of Jordan, and the countrys economic, political and cultural centre. Situated in north-central Jordan, Amman is the centre of the Amman Governorate. The city has a population of 4,007,526, today, Amman is considered to be among the most liberal and westernized Arab cities. It is a major tourist destination in the region, particularly among Arab, the earliest evidence of settlement in the area is a Neolithic site known as Ain Ghazal. Its successor was known as Rabbath Ammon, which was the capital of the Ammonites, then as Philadelphia and it was initially built on seven hills but now spans over 19 hills combining 27 districts, which are administered by the Greater Amman Municipality headed by its mayor Aqel Biltaji. Areas of Amman have either gained their names from the hills or valleys they lie on, such as Jabal Lweibdeh, East Amman is predominantly filled with historic sites that frequently host cultural activities, while West Amman is more modern and serves as the economic center of the city. Approximately 2 million visitors arrived in Amman in 2014, which ranked it as the 93rd most visited city in the world, Amman has a relatively fast growing economy, and it is ranked Beta− on the global city index. Moreover, it was named one of the Middle East and North Africas best cities according to economic, labor, environmental, the city is among the most popular locations in the Arab world for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. It is expected that in the next 10 years these three cities will capture the largest share of multinational corporation activity in the region. Amman derives its name from the 13th century BC when the Ammonites named it Rabbath Ammon, over time, the term Rabbath was no longer used and the city became known as Ammon. The influence of new civilizations that conquered the city changed its name to Amman. In the Hebrew Bible, it is referred to as Rabbat ʿAmmon, however, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who reigned from 283 to 246 BC, renamed the city to Philadelphia after occupying it. The name was given as an adulation to his own nickname, in the outskirts of Amman, one of the largest known ancient settlements in the Near East was discovered. The site, known as Ain Ghazal which is situated on a valley-side, dates back to 7250 BC and it was a typical average sized aceramic Neolithic village that accommodated around 3,000 inhabitants. Its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, the site was discovered in 1974 as construction workers were working on a road crossing the area. By 1982 when the excavations started, around 600 meters of road ran through the site, despite the damage brought by urban expansion, the remains of Ain Ghazal provided a wealth of information. These statues are human figures made with white plaster, the figures have painted clothes, hair, and in some cases ornamental tattoos. Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, and two fragmentary heads, three of the busts were two-headed, the significance of which is not clear

39.
Visa (document)
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A visa is a conditional authorization granted by a country to a foreigner, allowing them to enter and temporarily remain within, or to leave that country. Visas are associated with the request for permission to enter a country and thus are, in countries, distinct from actual formal permission for an alien to enter. In each instance, a visa is subject to permission by an immigration official at the time of actual entry. A visa is most commonly a sticker endorsed in the applicants passport or other travel document, some countries do not require visas for short visits. Some countries require that their citizens, as well as foreign travelers, uniquely, the Norwegian special territory of Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty. Some countries – such as those in the Schengen Area – have agreements with other countries allowing each others citizens to travel between them without visas, the World Tourism Organization announced that the number of tourists who require a visa before traveling was at its lowest level ever in 2015. Some countries do not require a visa in some situations, such as a result of reciprocal treaty arrangements, the possession of a visa is not in itself a guarantee of entry into the country that issued it, and a visa can be revoked at any time. A visitor may also be required to undergo and pass security or health checks upon arrival at the border, in Western Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century, passports and visas were not generally necessary for moving from one country to another. The relatively high speed and large movements of people traveling by train would have caused bottlenecks if regular passport controls had been used, passports and visas became usually necessary travel documents only since World War I. Long before that, in ancient times, passports and visas were usually the type of travel documents. In the modern world, visas have become separate secondary travel documents and these agencies are authorized by the foreign authority, embassy, or consulate to represent international travelers who are unable or unwilling to travel to the embassy and apply in person. Private visa and passport services collect a fee for verifying customer applications, supporting documents. If there is no embassy or consulate in ones home country, alternatively, in such cases visas may be pre-arranged for pickup on arrival at the border. The issuing authority, usually a branch of the foreign ministry or department. Some countries ask for proof of status, especially for long-term visas, some countries deny such visas to persons with certain illnesses. The exact conditions depend on the country and category of visa, notable examples of countries requiring HIV tests of long-term residents are Russia and Uzbekistan. However, in Uzbekistan, the HIV test requirement is not strictly enforced. Other countries require a medical test which includes an HIV test even for short term tourism visa, for instance Cuban citizens and international exchange students require such a test approved by a medical authority to enter Chilean territory

40.
Embassy
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In practice, a diplomatic mission usually denotes the resident mission, namely the office of a countrys diplomatic representatives in the capital city of another country. As well as being a mission to the country in which it is situated. There are thus resident and non-resident embassies, a permanent diplomatic mission is typically known as an Embassy, and the head of the mission is known as an Ambassador, or High Commissioner. Therefore, the Embassy operates in the Chancery, European Union missions abroad are known as EU delegations. Some countries have more particular naming for their missions and staff, under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, Libyas missions used the name peoples bureau and the head of the mission was a secretary. Missions between Commonwealth countries are known as commissions and their heads are High Commissioners. This is because Ambassadors are exchanged between foreign countries, but since the beginning of the Commonwealth, member countries have maintained that they are not foreign to one another. An ambassador represents one head of state to another and a letters of credence are addressed by one head of state to another. Until India became a republic on 26 January 1950, all members of the Commonwealth had the head of state. In the past a diplomatic mission headed by an official was known as a legation. Since the ranks of envoy and minister resident are effectively obsolete, a consulate is similar to, but not the same as a diplomatic office, but with focus on dealing with individual persons and businesses, as defined by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A consulate or consulate general is generally a representative of the embassy in locales outside of the capital city. For instance, the United Kingdom has its Embassy of the United Kingdom in Washington, D. C. but also maintains seven consulates-general, the person in charge of a consulate or consulate-general is known as a consul or consul-general, respectively. Similar services may also be provided at the embassy in what is called a consular section. In cases of dispute, it is common for a country to recall its head of mission as a sign of its displeasure, a chargé daffaires ad interim also heads the mission during the interim between the end of one chief of missions term and the beginning of another. Contrary to popular belief, most diplomatic missions do not enjoy full extraterritorial status, rather, the premises of diplomatic missions usually remain under the jurisdiction of the host state while being afforded special privileges by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Diplomats themselves still retain full diplomatic immunity, and the host country may not enter the premises of the mission without permission of the represented country, international rules designate an attack on an embassy as an attack on the country it represents. The term extraterritoriality is often applied to missions, but normally only in this broader sense

41.
Lebanon
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized country on the entire mainland Asian continent, the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, in the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion, however, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church, the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon. The French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was populated by Maronites and Druze. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie since 1973, despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been highly influential in the Arab world. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce. At the end of the war, there were efforts to revive the economy. In spite of troubles, Lebanon has the highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning white, occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L, the name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 and its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Umyayad, Abbasid Seljuk, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, and gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943

42.
Beirut
–
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. No recent population census has been done but in 2007 estimates ranged from more than 1 million to slightly less than 2 million as part of Greater Beirut. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanons Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the countrys largest and it is one of the oldest cities in the world, inhabited more than 5,000 years ago. The first historical mention of Beirut is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters dating from the 15th century BC, the Beirut River runs south to north on the eastern edge of the city. Beirut is Lebanons seat of government and plays a role in the Lebanese economy, with most banks and corporations based in its Central District, Badaro, Rue Verdun, Hamra. Following the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beiruts cultural landscape underwent major reconstruction, identified and graded for accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law, Beirut is ranked as a Beta World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. In May 2015, Beirut was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur, and La Paz. Beirut I, or Minet el Hosn, was listed as Beyrouth ville by Louis Burkhalter and said to be on the beach near the Orent, the site was discovered by Lortet in 1894 and discussed by Godefroy Zumoffen in 1900. The flint industry from the site was described as Mousterian and is held by the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, Beirut II, or Umm el Khatib, was suggested by Burkhalter to have been south of Tarik el Jedideh, where P. E. Gigues discovered a Copper Age flint industry at around 100 metres above sea level, the site had been built on and destroyed by 1948. Beirut III, Furn esh Shebbak or Plateau Tabet, was suggested to have located on the left bank of the Beirut River. Burkhalter suggested that it was west of the Damascus road, although this determination has been criticized by Lorraine Copeland, P. E. Gigues discovered a series of Neolithic flint tools on the surface along with the remains of a structure suggested to be a hut circle. Auguste Bergy discussed polished axes that were found at this site. The area was covered in red sand that represented Quaternary river terraces, the site was found by Jesuit Father Dillenseger and published by fellow Jesuits Godefroy Zumoffen, Raoul Describes and Auguste Bergy. Collections from the site were made by Bergy, Describes and another Jesuit, a large number of Middle Paleolithic flint tools were found on the surface and in side gullies that drain into the river. They included around 50 varied bifaces accredited to the Acheulean period, some with a lustrous sheen, Henri Fleisch also found an Emireh point amongst material from the site, which has now disappeared beneath buildings. Levallois flints and bones and similar material were found amongst brecciated deposits. The area has now built on

43.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם‎, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian

44.
Sweden
–
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe

Iraqi Kurdistan
–
Iraqi Kurdistan, officially called the Kurdistan Region by the Iraqi constitution, is located in the north of Iraq and constitutes the countrys only autonomous region. The region is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with the capital being Erbil. Kurdistan is a democracy with its own regional Parliament that consists of 111 seats. Masou

1.
Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

2.
Flag

3.
Lake Dukan

4.
Greater Zab River near Erbil Kurdistan

Gulf War
–
The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World W

2.
Donald Rumsfeld, as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, meets Saddam Hussein on 19–20 December 1983.

3.
Kuwait Army M-84 main battle tanks.

4.
Iraqi Army T-72 M main battle tanks. The T-72M tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War.

Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kur

1.
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE, hematite. The king makes an animal offering to Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at Sippar.

2.
Flag

3.
Victory stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad

4.
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE

Refugee
–
A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the state or the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the Un

1.
Villagers fleeing the village of Kibati during the 2008 Nord-Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2.
Darfur refugee camp in Chad, 2005

3.
Greeks fleeing the Destruction of Psara in 1824 (painting by Nikolaos Gyzis).

4.
One million Armenians fled Turkey between 1915 and 1923 to escape persecution and genocide.

Iraq War
–
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 y

1.
Clockwise from top: U.S. troops at Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein's hideout; insurgents in northern Iraq; an Iraqi insurgent firing a MANPADS; the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square.

2.
A UN weapons inspector examines an Iraqi factory in 2002.

3.
President George Bush, surrounded by leaders of the House and Senate, announces the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq, 2 October 2002.

4.
Excerpt from Donald Rumsfeld memo dated 27 November 2001

Invasion of Kuwait
–
The Invasion of Kuwait on August 2,1990 was a 2-day operation conducted by Iraq against the neighboring state of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. These events came to be known as the first Gulf War and resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the Iraqis setting 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire

1.
April Glaspie's first meeting with Saddam Hussein

2.
The Basra Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in 1897. After the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, Kuwait was established as an autonomous kaza, or district, of the Ottoman Empire and a de facto protectorate of Great Britain.

3.
An Iraqi Type 69 tank on display at the site of the Al-Qurain Martyrdom.

4.
A Kuwait M-84 tank during Operation Desert Shield in 1990. Kuwait continues to maintain strong relations with the coalition of the Gulf War.

Sanctions against Iraq
–
The sanctions against Iraq were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the Iraqi Republic. They began August 6,1990, four days after Iraqs invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003, and persisted in part, including reparations to Kuwait, through the present. The original stated pu

1.
An American helicopter shadows the Russian oil tanker Volgoneft-147

American occupation of Iraq
–
It was a period of violence and political turmoil with strong foreign influence exerted on Iraqi politics. In April 2003, an occupation was established and run by the Coalition Provisional Authority. In June 2004, a government was established – the Iraqi Interim Government. Following parliamentary elections in January 2005, this administration was

1.
A Lynx Helicopter of the Army Air Corps ready to touch down on a desert road south of Basra Airport, November 2003

3.
Statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled in Baghdad 's Firdos Square on 9 April 2003.

4.
Canal Hotel Bombing

Middle East
–
The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in th

1.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

2.
Map of the Middle East (green).

3.
The Kaaba, located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

4.
Islam is the largest religion in the Middle East. Here, Muslim men are prostrating during prayer in a mosque.

UNHCR
–
Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981, following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end

1.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

2.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

3.
UNHCR packages containing tents, tarps, and mosquito netting sit in a field in Dadaab, Kenya, on 11 December 2006, following disastrous flooding

4.
UNHCR 50th anniversary. Stamp of Tajikistan, 2001.

Kurdish refugees
–
The problem of Kurdish refugees and displaced people arose in the 20th century in the Middle East, and continues to loom today. The Kurds, are an group in Western Asia, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. In Iraq, the Kurdish strive for autonomy and independence loomed into armed confli

3.
U.S. Marines construct a refugee camp to house Kurdish refugees, 1997

4.
Kurdish refugees from Kobanî in a refugee camp, on the Turkish side of the Syria–Turkey border.

Kuwait
–
Kuwait /kuːˈweɪt/, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in Western Asia. Situated in the edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it shares borders with Iraq. As of 2016, Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people,1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million are expatriates, expatriates account for 70% of the population. Oil re

1.
Oil fires in Kuwait in 1991, which were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait.

2.
Flag

3.
Kuwait National Assembly Building

4.
Satellite image of Kuwait

Desert Storm
–
The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World W

2.
Donald Rumsfeld, as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, meets Saddam Hussein on 19–20 December 1983.

3.
Kuwait Army M-84 main battle tanks.

4.
Iraqi Army T-72 M main battle tanks. The T-72M tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War.

Kurds
–
The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken

Shi'as
–
Shia is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Shia Islam primarily contrasts with Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor, instead they consider Abu Bakr to be the correct Caliph. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shias of Ali, Shias or

3.
The Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala, Iraq is a holy site for Shia Muslims.

Saddam Hussein
–
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries, the state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanct

1.
Saddam Hussein in 1979.

2.
Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Party student cell, Cairo, in the period 1959–1963

3.
Promoting women's literacy and education in the 1970s

4.
Saddam seen talking to Michel Aflaq, the founder of ba'athist thought, in 1988.

Palestinians
–
Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the worlds Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, the history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed is

2.
A depiction of Syria and Palestine from CE 650 to 1500

3.
UN stamp to commemorate the Palestinian struggle.

4.
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, leader of the Army of the Holy War in 1948.

Sunni
–
Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him.

3.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba) was, in particular during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, an important center of Islamic learning with an emphasis on the Maliki Madh'hab. It is located in the city of Kairouan in Tunisia

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
–
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a social democratic Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on May 22,1975, by coordination between Jalal Talabani, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Ali Askari, Fuad Masum, Adel Murad, and Abdul Razaq Faily. Talabani, a student leader, lawyer, journalist and resistance leader,

1.
Jalal Talabani is the current leader of the PUK and former president of Iraq

Kurdistan Democratic Party
–
The Kurdistan Democratic Party, usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is one of the main Kurdish parties in Iraqi Kurdistan. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan, the KDP has been described as being controlled by Barzani tribe. In 1946, the leader of the Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad, Qazi Muhammad, announced the formation of a K

Internally Displaced Persons
–
An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her countrys borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the definitions of a refugee. At the end of 2014, it was estimated there were 38.2 million IDPs worldwide, the highest level since 1989, the firs

1.
Villagers fleeing gunfire in a camp for internally displaced persons during the 2008 Nord-Kivu war

2.
Tailor in Labuje IDP camp in Uganda.

Presidency of George H. W. Bush
–
The presidency of George H. W. Bush began on January 20,1989, at noon Eastern Standard Time, when George H. W. Bush was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1993. Bush, a Republican, and incumbent Vice President of the United States and he was the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Va

1.
George H. W. Bush

2.
George Bush in his TBM Avenger on the carrier USS San Jacinto in 1944

3.
Bush with President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Iraqi no-fly zones
–
Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by U. S. British, while the enforcing powers had cited United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 as authorizing the operations, the resolution contains no explicit authorization. The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, from 1992 t

1.
Still photograph from a videotape of an Iraqi surface-to-air missile, believed to be an SA-3, launched at a coalition aircraft in July 2001.

2.
No-fly zone detail

Operation Provide Comfort
–
Operation Haven by the British name – was a British initiative, made at a time when the U. S. was fundamentally uninterested in any further taking of action in the Gulf. The British Prime Minister’s lobbying of European colleagues achieved NATO support, then as Saddam’s retribution activities escalated, U. S. ground and logistic support was also ac

3.
Kurdish refugee children run toward a CH-53G helicopter of the German Army during Operation Provide Comfort

4.
As seen from the cockpit of a Fighter Squadron 41 (VF-41) F-14A Tomcat aircraft, a Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84) Tomcat, background, and another VF-41 Tomcat fly in formation at an aerial refueling meeting point during Operation Provide Comfort, a multinational effort to aid Kurdish refugees in southern Turkey and northern Iraq.

Amadiya
–
Amadiya /ˌɑːməˈdiːə/ is an Assyrian and Kurdish populated town and popular summer resort and Hill station along a tributary to the Great Zab in the Dahuk Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan. The city is situated 4,600 feet above sea level, the history of the city of Amadiya goes back as far as ancient Assyria, and it has probably existed even prior to t

1.
Amadiya bird's eye view

Dihok
–
The city is encircled by mountains along the Tigris river. Dohuk has a growing tourist industry and its population has increased rapidly since the 1990s, as the rural population moved to the cities. The University of Dohuk, founded in 1992, is a center for teaching. Another theory is that the name comes from Taok due to the fact that the region is

1.
View on Duhok with the Duhok Dam in the background

2.
Duhok by night

Zakho
–
Zakho is a city, at the centre of the eponymous Zakho District of the Dohuk Governorate of Iraq, located a few kilometers from the Iraqi-Turkish border. The city has a population of 350,000 and it may have originally begun on a small island surrounded on all sides by the Little Khabur river, which flows through the modern city. The Khabur flows wes

1.
View on Zakho

2.
Delal Bridge

3.
Sharansh waterfall

George H.W Bush
–
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he wa

1.
George H. W. Bush

2.
George Bush in his TBM Avenger on the carrier USS San Jacinto in 1944

3.
Bush with President Dwight D. Eisenhower

George W. Bush
–
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977

1.
George W. Bush

2.
Lt. George W. Bush while in the Texas Air National Guard

3.
Governor Bush (right) with father, former president George H. W. Bush and wife, Laura, in 1997

2006 al-Askari Mosque bombing
–
The 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing occurred at the al-Askari mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, on February 22,2006, at about 6,44 a. m. local time. The attack on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, is not claimed by any group, the mosque was severely damaged, but none were injured in the blast. On February 22,2006, at 6,44 a. m. e

1.
The Mosque after the first bombing, 2006.

2.
The Al-Askari Mosque in 1916.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
–
Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981, following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end

1.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

2.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

3.
UNHCR packages containing tents, tarps, and mosquito netting sit in a field in Dadaab, Kenya, on 11 December 2006, following disastrous flooding

4.
UNHCR 50th anniversary. Stamp of Tajikistan, 2001.

Internally displaced
–
An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her countrys borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the definitions of a refugee. At the end of 2014, it was estimated there were 38.2 million IDPs worldwide, the highest level since 1989, the firs

1.
Villagers fleeing gunfire in a camp for internally displaced persons during the 2008 Nord-Kivu war

2.
Tailor in Labuje IDP camp in Uganda.

Collaborationism
–
Collaborationism is cooperation with the enemy against ones country in wartime. Stanley Hoffmann subdivided collaboration onto involuntary and voluntary, in contrast, Bertram Gordon used the terms collaborator and collaborationist for non-ideological and ideological collaborations, respectively. The meaning of traitorous cooperation with the dates

1.
Palestinian lynched for allegedly collaborating with Israel in 1992.

United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

1.
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

2.
Flag

3.
The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

4.
The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Oxfam International
–
Oxfam is an international confederation of charitable organizations focused on the alleviation of global poverty. It was one of local committees formed in support of the National Famine Relief Committee. Their mission was to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the citizens of occupied Greece. The fir

4.
Plaque commemorating first meeting of Oxfam in the Old Library, the University Church, Oxford.

Refugee camp
–
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced persons who have fled their home country, usually refugees seek asylum after theyve escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental- and economic migrants. Camps with over

1.
Refugee camp (located in present-day eastern Congo-Kinshasa) for Rwandans following the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

Al Qaeda
–
It operates as a network made up of Islamic extremist, Salafist jihadists. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries, including the 1998 U. S. embassy bombings, the September 11 attacks, the U. S. government responded to the September 11 attacks by launching the War on Terror. Characteristic techniques emplo

1.
Al-Qaeda militant in Sahel, 2012

2.
Shahada flag

3.
Al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden in 2001 interview with Hamid Mir in Kabul

Amman
–
Amman is the capital and most populous city of Jordan, and the countrys economic, political and cultural centre. Situated in north-central Jordan, Amman is the centre of the Amman Governorate. The city has a population of 4,007,526, today, Amman is considered to be among the most liberal and westernized Arab cities. It is a major tourist destinatio

1.
Amman city landmarks, from right to left and above to below: the Abdali Project dominating Amman's skyline as seen from Sport city, Temple of Hercules at Amman Citadel, King Abdullah I Mosque and Raghadan Flagpole, Abdoun Bridge, Umayyad Palace, Ottoman Hejaz Railway station and Roman theater.

2.
Rujm Al-Malfouf Ammonite watch tower

3.
View of Qasr Al-Abd

4.
Hand of Hercules at the temple of Hercules in Amman Citadel.

Visa (document)
–
A visa is a conditional authorization granted by a country to a foreigner, allowing them to enter and temporarily remain within, or to leave that country. Visas are associated with the request for permission to enter a country and thus are, in countries, distinct from actual formal permission for an alien to enter. In each instance, a visa is subje

1.
A United States visa. Issued by the Consulate General of the United States of America in Milan, Italy. (2014)

2.
Exit USSR visa of type 1 (for temporary visits outside the Soviet Union). Not to be confused with exit visa of type 2 (green), which was stamped to those who received the permission to exit the USSR forever and lost Soviet citizenship.

3.
Exit USSR visa of type 2. For those who received permission to leave the USSR forever and lost Soviet citizenship.

4.
Russian empire visa stamp (1917).

Embassy
–
In practice, a diplomatic mission usually denotes the resident mission, namely the office of a countrys diplomatic representatives in the capital city of another country. As well as being a mission to the country in which it is situated. There are thus resident and non-resident embassies, a permanent diplomatic mission is typically known as an Emba

1.
Spanish Embassy to the Holy See and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

2.
Indian Embassy, Prague

3.
Nordic Embassies, Berlin

4.
Embassy of the United States, Havana

Lebanon
–
Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At j

1.
The Fall of Tripoli to the Egyptian Mamluks and destruction of the Crusader state, the County of Tripoli, 1289

2.
Flag

3.
Fakhreddine II Palace, 17th century

4.
1862 map drawn by the French expedition of Beaufort d'Hautpoul, later used as a template for the 1920 borders of Greater Lebanon.

Beirut
–
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. No recent population census has been done but in 2007 estimates ranged from more than 1 million to slightly less than 2 million as part of Greater Beirut. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanons Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the countrys largest and it is one of the oldest cities in the

1.
clockwise from top left: Mosque in Downtown Beirut, Beirut Souks, High rise construction near Manara, Place de l'etoile, Cafés in Downtown, Saifi Village

2.
Seal

3.
Canaanean Blade. Suggested to be part of a javelin. Fresh grey flint, both sides showing pressure flaking. Somewhat narrower at the base, suggesting a haft. Polished at the extreme point. Found on land of the Lebanese Evangelical School for Girls in the Patriarchate area of Beirut.

4.
View of Beirut with snow-capped Mount Sannine in the background – 19th century

Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Su

1.
The Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.

2.
Flag

3.
The Greek Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion at the Temple of Dendera.

4.
The 1803 Cedid Atlas, showing Ottoman Egypt.

Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square ki

1.
A Vendel-era helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.

2.
Flag

3.
A romantic nationalist interpretation of Valdemar IV taking control over Gotland. The final battle outside the walls of Visby in 1361 ended with a massacre of 1,800 defenders of the city.

1.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer addresses Dick Cheney (center), then Vice President of the United States, Saxby Chambliss (center right), a U.S. senator from Georgia and Michael Chertoff (far right), then United States Secretary of Homeland Security in 2005

2.
Seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

3.
President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2004 on October 1, 2003.

1.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer addresses Dick Cheney (center), then Vice President of the United States, Saxby Chambliss (center right), a U.S. senator from Georgia and Michael Chertoff (far right), then United States Secretary of Homeland Security in 2005

2.
Seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

3.
President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2004 on October 1, 2003.

4.
Memorial commemorating the first use of the Red Cross symbol in an armed conflict during the Battle of Dybbøl (Denmark) in 1864; jointly erected in 1989 by the national Red Cross societies of Denmark and Germany.